In anticipation of the first trailer for the upcoming DC outing, The Flash, the first poster has now been unveiled and finds Barry Allen standing in the Batcave. Released via social media, the poster reveals another look at Ezra Miller as the super-speedster in his new duds, a glowing red-and-yellow ensemble reminiscent of the character’s modern comic book costume. Check out the poster for The Flash below.

The Flash takes major inspiration from the comic book arc Flashpoint and finds Barry Allen traveling back in time to prevent his mother’s murder. But, while the movie will maintain the madness resulting from Barry’s meddling, the details will be changed dramatically. Barry’s attempt at time travel seems to cause the DC multiverse to collapse, resulting in all variants of familiar characters coming to the fore. This includes Sasha Calle as Supergirl and Michael Keaton, who will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, after more than 30 years. Keaton’s return is one of the big selling points of The Flash, and judging by the poster, Batman is sure to play a major role in both the movie and the marketing.

Directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson and starring Ezra Miller, Ron Livingston, Michael Keaton, Kiersey Clemons, Michael Shannon, Sasha Calle, and Ben Affleck, newly appointed DC co-chief James Gunn has since praised The Flash, calling it “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made” and revealing that it will be the movie that “resets the entire DC Universe.”

RELATED: DCU: How The Flash Could Change the Future of the DCU

The DC Cinematic Universe is All Set to Be Rebooted

Thanks to a recent announcement from Gunn and fellow DC chief Peter Safran, we now have a better idea of what the imminently rebooted DCU will entail. The new beginning for the franchise will begin with a Superman reboot, Superman: Legacy, in July 2025, followed by the superhero team-up flick The Authority, a Batman project titled The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, a Swamp Thing reboot, a Wonder Woman prequel series titled Paradise Lost, the animated series Creature Commandos, a series centered on Amanda Waller, a Green Lantern series titled Lanterns, and a series about Booster Gold.

While many of the roles are expected to be recast, Safran did go on to reveal that Ezra Miller’s time as The Flash may not yet be over. “Ezra is completely committed to their recovery,” he said. “We’re fully supportive of that journey that they’re on right now. When the time is right, when they feel they are ready to have the discussion, we’ll all figure out what the best way forward is, but right now, they are completely focused on their recovery. In our conversations with them over the last couple of months, it feels like they’re making enormous progress.”

The Flash is scheduled to be released in the United States on June 16, following many, many, many delays. The first trailer for The Flash is due to debut during Super Bowl Sunday.

Fans shared their reactions to the first footage of Amber Heard as her DCEU character Mera in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. 

Heard has been mired in controversy for quite some time after the actress was taken to trial for defamation by her former spouse Johnny Depp. This came after she alleged Depp was “verbally and physically abusive” toward her during their marriage – an allegation she was unable to prove in court.

This put her role in the Aquaman sequel into question, with many wondering if her Atlantean would be cut from the film. Well, as time has gone on, it has become more and more clear that would not be the case, but what is surprising is reports revealing her role “[hasn’t been] reduced or shortened at all.”

All this came to a head recently, as a first look of Heard’s DC hero was showcased as a part of footage revealed at Cinema Con in Las Vegas. 

Fans React to Amber Heard’s DC Return

After Amber Heard’s Mera appeared in the latest Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer shown off at CinemaCon 2023, fans took to social media to have their thoughts heard amid controversy surrounding the actress.

Most of the reaction saw audiences criticizing the decision to include her, with Twitter users like Dr. Gandalf the Grey admitting that “a brief glimpse [at Mera] is still too much!!”

Totally dumbfounded, @MEHANICH2 pondering why more liked heroes like Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman “leave,” but Heard gets to stay:

“Affleck and Cavill leave, but she stays?!”

Chonkychez called the move to keep Heard in the film “terrible:”

“Terrible to keep someone who lied about abuse in a movie.”

And a number of fans (including @_Esperanza06) even went as far as to say that they will not be watching the movie: 

“Welp I guess I’m not watching ‘Aquaman'”

Feeling very much the same way, @el_yorch00 shared their hope for the incoming James Gunn DC reboot:

“I’m sorry but I’m not watching this, also Gunn is still rebooting and recasting Aquaman anyway”

@Shellys_Wellie also made it known that they “won’t be watching it:”

“and with that i confirm that i wont be watching it”

It was not all negative though, fans like @Lorenzo74209291 wondered what Warner Bros. was supposed to do seeing as they had “already filmed” the Jason Momoa-led blockbuster when the controversy emerged:

“Not that they could do anything about it, they had already filmed”

Xandra was much more positive, calling Heard their “queen:”

“The queen returns”

Sharing a similar sentiment, @cuntrss called the actress “mother” and celebrated her return:

“Don’t give a shit about this movie but we are watching for mother”

And @banter_ko tweeted asking who he needs to “talk to to get that new Amber Mera footage:”

“Who do I need to talk to to get that new Amber Mera footage”

Warner Bros.’ Mera Problem

This Amber Heard/Mera conundrum is something Warner Bros. was going to have to tackle no matter what, as the actress’ became embroiled in the heated legal battle she ultimately lost with her former partner Johnny Depp. 

However, that does not make it any more surprising that her character continues to remain as involved in the Aquaman sequel as she seems to be. 

With all the time Aquaman 2 has been granted due to extensive delays, one would think the studio would rework the film to reduce (if not outright remove) Heard’s involvement in the film. 

There had been reports about Warner Bros. “potentially recasting” the role; however, that was all before James Gunn was brought on to retool and reboot the DCU. 

Because Gunn is now on board, almost all of these DC characters will be reimagined in some way.

So, Warner sort of built its own ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, never really having to fully address the magnitude of the Amber Heard situation, while also not having to work with the actress past The Lost Kingdom. 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes to theaters later this year on December 20. 

Major sociopolitical changes obviously influence film and media writ large, but of all the historical specters haunting cinema, Watergate is one of the most interesting. The event (and the entire political milieu which surrounded it) would inspire a wave of much more cynical, paranoid conspiracy thriller classics, from The Parallax View and The Conversation to Marathon Man and Three Days of the Condor. And yet, not much actual media has focused on the event itself.

Perhaps that’s because All the President’s Men was such a masterpiece, that it seemed foolhardy to ever attempt telling the Watergate story again in any cinematic medium (though the underrated BBC docuseries, Watergate, is excellent). Even Anthony Hopkins playing Nixon in a three-hour biopic from Oliver Stone is barely remembered today. Or perhaps it’s because the actual story of the scandal is so genuinely stupid, filled with laughable men and pathetic plots. Granted, it was a big deal at the time. Men from the White House, working to re-elect Nixon, broke into the Democratic National Convention and bugged their offices before initiating a massive cover-up campaign.

Or maybe that’s it. Maybe 50 years later, it’s not that big of a deal in American politics. We’re used to Bill Clinton’s oral in the Oval, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Trump’s hush money schemes with porn stars and attempted insurrection, Hillary’s emails, Haliburton, drone strikes on innocent civilians, and so much more. Bugging your political competitor’s office? Try threatening to jail your political rival and lock her up, or having the NSA bug every civilian’s device. In a sick, sad way, Watergate just isn’t that sexy today.

White House Plumbers hears those warnings and responds with a firm, “Hold my wire-tap.” Instead of attempting to make a serious dramatic thriller out of the political scandal, or use it as an allegory for the world’s recent and more lurid scandals, White House Plumbers comes across as an extremely confident and efficient character study and political comedy. The new HBO miniseries is closer to the Coen brothers’ comedies (Burn After Reading especially, but also Hail Caesar) than it is to ’70s political thrillers like The Day of the Jackal, and that’s a good thing. With a tight five episodes and a wonderful cast, White House Plumbers is a bizarre, funny, and very entertaining history lesson.

HBO’s Watergate Comedy Dives Right In

White House Plumbers jumps right into action, never really catching the audience up to speed. That’s mostly fine, though, as the series is more interested in exploring these characters and what their ridiculous commitment to a corrupt president and system says about patriotism, government, and politics.

The series begins a bit after the leaked revelations of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the extent to which the American military had bombed and destroyed Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The free love dream of the ’60s had died, the Vietnam War was an unending nightmare, banks and lobbyists were taking over Washington, and the government was hiding things from you. This was the climate which led to such paranoid conspiracy films, and Watergate only exacerbated it.

Related: These Are Some of the Best Conspiracy Thriller Movies

President Nixon is worried about the upcoming election, and a clandestine task force of sorts is organized, ostensibly led by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. Initially called the ‘White House Plumbers’ (because they fix leaks), the two began by seeking out dirt on a reporter that Nixon hated, Jack Anderson, before becoming friends and developing a series of wild plans to help Nixon beat his Democratic opponents, becoming ‘The Committee for the Re-election of the President.’ Ultimately, the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell, approves a reduced version of one of their ideas — bug the DNC.

Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson Are White House Plumbers

Hunt enlists a group of Cuban freedom fighters he knew from his Bay of Pigs days, and this ungodly mess of CIA, FBI, and mercenary misfits stake out the DNC and put their plan into action. If the suave thieves of Ocean’s 11 all had their IQs halved, they would look somewhat like these White House Plumbers. The men run into problems, hide their failures from their bosses, and hide everything from their families.

It’s fundamentally Liddy and Hunt’s story, though. Both were larger-than-life men utterly committed to the cause, but none more so than Liddy. With his thick mustache and pompous voice, the hyperbolic man’s existence is almost an exercise in self-mockery. After he went to prison for Watergate, he would become an author, an actor, and a talk radio personality for two decades. He told his listeners to shoot federal employees in the head, and said that he uses pictures of Bill and Hillary Clinton for target practice. He was a loud, proud, and possibly insane man with a deep affinity for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Justin Theroux steals the series as Liddy. Both he and Woody Harrelson (as Hunt) are very over-the-top here in performances that could easily veer into caricatures, but they manage to humanize these men while maintaining their ridiculousness and hilarity. Harrelson is all gruff and growly, a terrible father and failed family man who’s only real passion is the vague concept of ‘for love of country.’

Related: Justin Theroux’s 5 Best Performances, Ranked

Theroux, though, takes the cake, and is as funny as he is intimidating. He’s a true madman, a loyalist who would die for Nixon, who happily shreds bundles of cash and plots his own assassination to further the cause. He blasts a record of Hitler’s speeches as if it was Metallica. He’s the best Coen brothers character they never created.

David Mandel and a Great Cast Make the Jokes Work

White House Plumbers inevitably gets darker and more depressing as its brisk five hours marches forward. Even if you don’t know all the manic minutiae of the Watergate scandal, one can easily surmise that it does not end well; if it had, we would’ve likely never known about it. The last two episodes of the series personifies that grim political catchphrase, “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.” Watching the walls close in around Liddy and Hunt, one almost feels sorry for them. That’s an artistic accomplishment.

David Mandel directs the series (created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, based on the book, Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh), and does a phenomenal job. It moves swiftly without being confusing, and lands all its little jokes by basing them in the characters. Mandel is well acquainted with deeply cynical political comedy, as a writer, director, and producer on the brilliant Veep, but he also knows quirky, eccentric, laugh-out-loud comedy as a writer, director, and producer on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He brings both skills to White House Plumbers.

The supporting cast is excellent as well. Domhnall Gleeson, Lena Headey, Ike Barinholtz, Toby Huss, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Kim Coates, Yul Vazquez, Judy Greer, and Lena Headey are all fantastic, and quick but delightful appearances from John Carroll Lynch, Gary Cole, Corbin Bernsen, and others are more than welcome. Kathleen Turner is absolutely golden as Dita Beard in a performance that deserves whatever awards they can give her. She’s only in one episode, but she dominates.

At the end of the day, though, this is Theroux and Harrelson’s show, and they own it. They make for one of the oddest buddy comedy pairings in history, but maybe this was the only real way to explore Watergate in today’s political climate. It’s kind of all a joke. A deeply human, sad, consequential, and ridiculous joke, and it lands.

White House Plumbers debuts on HBO Monday, May 1st, with a subsequent episode every Monday until May 29th, and can be streamed anytime on HBO’s platform, Max.