Summary
- The Flash movie featuring multiple versions of Batman disappointed Warner Bros. Discovery and became one of the biggest flops in the comic book movie genre.
- Director Andy Muschietti shared behind-the-scenes photos with Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s Batman, but they never had a scene together despite being popular iterations of the character.
- The missed opportunity to have Affleck and Keaton’s Batmen share the screen reflects a larger problem with The Flash movie’s handling of the multiverse concept.
Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton, and George Clooney’s versions of Batman get spotlighted in new BTS photos from The Flash movie. 2023 is marking the end of the DCEU, and it has not been an easy year for the decade-old franchise. Despite massive hype from Warner Bros. Discovery, The Flash did not live up to their financial expectations, as it became one of the biggest flops in the comic book movie genre.
One of the big elements of The Flash movie was the multiple versions of Batman, with the DCEU installment starting with Ben Affleck’s iteration of Bruce Wayne prior to Barry Allen’s time-travel changes. This past weekend saw the celebration of Batman Day, and The Flash movie director Andy Muschietti took part in honoring the Dark Knight on social media.
For his first post, Muschietti shared a clearer shot of Affleck from The Flash’s deleted post-credit scene that was supposedly going to reveal what happened to his Batman after Barry reset the universe.
The second photo features Muschietti together with Michael Keaton’s Batman in between takes, seemingly from the massive fight scene in Siberia.
Finally, Muschietti also posted a photo with him and George Clooney in The Flash’s cliffhanger scene where Barry discovers that the Batman of this universe is neither Affleck nor Keaton, but instead the Batman & Robin version of the Caped Crusader.
The Flash Movie Missed A Major Batman Multiverse Crossover Opportunity
Even though it is already bad that The Flash’s post-credits scene will likely never get its cliffhanger resolved, the return of three Batman actors in one movie highlights another major problem. For a movie that was so much about the multiverse, The Flash never took the chance to work in a scene where Keaton and Affleck’s Batmen got to share the screen together. This could have been the DCEU’s equivalent to Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire made cinematic history by having their Peter Parkers come together.
Out of any DC character throughout the decades, Batman has been featured the most in live-action, and The Flash could have finally staged something special for the Dark Knight. Having Affleck and Keaton, who are by far the more popular live-action versions of Batman, not meet each other throughout The Flash is a huge missed opportunity. Even the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover found ways to have their multiple Superman have some scenes together for a few minutes, which should have been an easy task for The Flash.
As the new DC Universe comes to life, the multiverse will likely not be prioritized for quite some time as the focus will be better placed on establishing a fresh continuity. This means that The Flash was likely the last chance anytime soon for several legacy DC actors to reprise their roles or share the screen with other versions of their iconic characters. However, given the tepid performance of and response to The Flash, it may be best that such a reunion potentially happens some other time down the line.
Source: Andy Muschietti (1, 2, 3)/Instagram
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