Why The Flash Filmed Three Separate Twist Endings And How They Pulled Off That Cameo

With social media and the digital age, the genuine movie surprise has become a rare creature almost never seen. And yet, one of the most anticipated films of the past several years managed to pull off one of the biggest surprises of the superhero era.

If you can’t tell by now, there are going to be spoilers for “The Flash,” and particularly for the ending of “The Flash,” so if you haven’t seen “The Flash” and you’re going to be mad if the ending of “The Flash” is spoiled for you … why are you still reading this?!

**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!!**

What’s also interesting about this film is that the ending fans got wasn’t the original plan for how to end Barry Allen’s multi-versal adventures. There was always a planned sucker-punch at the end, but the exact nature of that punch has been tweaked not once, but twice.

It’s all to do with the tumult and chaos at Warner Bros. Discovery since the film was first put together, delayed, underwent leadership change(s), delayed some more, and then finally released to fans in 2023 with an uncertain future ahead of them. Does “The Flash” clarify that path? Not in the slightest — but it’s still fun!

In the beginning, then-boss Walter Hamada was looking at “The Flash” as a reset of sorts for the DC Extended Universe, as broken down by The Hollywood Reporter. Most of the film was produced under his leadership, with Toby Emmerich at the helm of Warner Bros.

The idea was to pivot away from Zach Snyder’s “Man of Steel” universe as much as possible after the poorly-received — and incredibly altered by Joss Whedon — “Justice League” film. Hamada envisioned his twist ending leading to a “Flash” sequel and then a whole “Crisis on Infinite Earths” adaptation.

And in his twist ending, Barry would still wind up on the courthouse steps, but he would be flanked by Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Batman. In other words, his attempt to make right all that he’d disrupted would have failed, setting up the ultimate “Crisis” across multiple timelines.

But then, Discovery and Warner Bros. became their current behemoth and both Hamada and Emmerich were on the curb, along with their vision for the DCEU going forward. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav installed Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy as Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairperson and CEO, with oversight of DC.

With “The Flash” still seen as an opportunity to shift the existing DC line of films, this new leadership conceived a new ending, which they filmed in September. Their plan was to almost shift things back to what was familiar and well-received. Back on the courthouse steps, Flash and Supergirl would be joined by Henry Cavill’s Superman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. They also kept Keaton in place of Ben Affleck as Batman.

This direction was set up by having Cavill’s surprise appearance at the end of “Black Adam,” hinting at his eventual return as the Man of Steel and a new film, while director Patty Jenkins was teed up for a third Wonder Woman film. They also wanted to keep Calle’s Supergirl available and honor Affleck’s wishes to depart the role of Batman. This kept things in line with the older, more mature DC.

But this vision wasn’t to last, either. James Gunn and Peter Safran were propped up to head DC Studios in November and with them came yet another wholly new vision for the DC Universe, which was an even harder reset than any of their predecessors. And so, “The Flash” ending was looked at once again.

As the new bosses saw it, bringing back Cavill — which had already happened in “Black Adam” — and Gadot would set an expectation they weren’t sure they had any intention of following through on. In fact, they were pretty sure they had no plans to return to the so-called Snyderverse. And so, this second ending was scrapped, as well.

In January, Miller was called to yet another shoot to put together a third ending for the film. They liked the idea of revealing that Flash had not reset the universe as well as he’d hoped, but wanted to go with something even more unexpected.

And so, they reached out to perhaps the most unlikely former DC star of all time, showing him a cut of the film. He agreed to it and signed on for a half-day of filming. And so, for the first time in 26 years, George Clooney was back as Bruce Wayne … a role he’s publicly trashed for just about as long.

In Clooney’s defense, “Batman & Robin” was trashed by pretty much everyone upon its release and was such a disaster, it effectively killed Batman as a franchise for nearly a decade, until “Batman Begins” hit theaters in 2005.

It’s pretty unlikely that Clooney has any interest in continuing as the Caped Crusader, but anything is possible. A lot of it depends on how “The Flash” does at the box office, with initial reports that the Andy Muschietti-directed film is underperforming at the box office.

Initial projections were looking at a $70M-$75M opening weekend domestically, but the $200M film is instead looking to land at around $60M for the three-day weekend, per Deadline. The studio is hoping the Juneteenth holiday will add enough to still hit their mark for a four-day weekend.

According to the outlet, one of the factors that could have hurt the film was the fact the ongoing WGA strike impacted the cast’s ability to do any press for the film. Certainly, the absence of most late-night and some daytime, talk shows has cut back on their opportunities.

And then there’s the Miller factor. Not only was the film’s star not intending to do much press anyway, because of their controversial behavior in 2022 including alleged assault and burglary, there may be some backlash to the fact the film was still released at all.

“The Flash” is in theaters now.