The Flash movie is set to explore the DC multiverse, yet Barry Allen’s time travel powers in the upcoming movie contradict three DC films. After CW’s The Flash show extensively dealt with how dangerous time travel can be in the DC Universe, The Flash movie will now explore that part of Barry Allen’s mythos on a multiversal scale. While 2023’s The Flash is the first theatrical Flash movie, the DCEU’s Barry Allen has had multiple appearances already.
After making a cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the Flash properly debuted in Justice League, a film that skipped Barry Allen’s origin story. A later cut of the film, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, also known as “the Snyder Cut,” presented an extended look at the Flash, incorporating Iris West and Barry’s time travel powers. Between two previous Justice League cuts and an upcoming DC Universe reset, The Flash has some complicated lore questions to solve.
The Flash’s Time Travel Doesn’t Fit With BvS & Zack Snyder’s Justice League
The first two The Flash movie trailers show Barry Allen going back in time to revisit the day Nora Allen, Barry’s mother, died. The Flash’s official synopsis also confirms that the Flash will go back in time, which is obviously expected to go wrong and set up a Flashpoint-inspired story in which Barry finds himself in a different reality. However, the idea of Barry Allen traveling to the past and interacting with it does not fit with the DCEU’s previous time travel examples – one from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the other from Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
In Batman v Superman, the Flash appears to Bruce Wayne from the future with a warning about Superman. At that moment, Barry Allen appeared from a portal, which, according to director Zack Snyder (via YouTube), was one of two portals opened by future Cyborg. The Flash picked the wrong portal, which is why Barry appears to Bruce Wayne before the Justice League was formed. In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Barry explains that time works differently around him when he achieves a certain speed. Both times the Flash uses “time travel” in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Barry was simply rewinding time rather than traveling through it.
The Flash Movie’s Time Travel May Prove 2017’s Justice League Isn’t Canon
The Flash movie also seems to be contradicting the theatrical cut of Justice League. Released in 2017, Justice League does not feature time travel. In fact, Barry Allen does not mention time travel at all during 2017’s Justice League. In the Snyder Cut, however, Barry discusses his time travel powers with Bruce Wayne before using them twice during the four-hour cut of Justice League – when activating the Mother Box to resurrect Superman and when fighting Steppenwolf at the end. As far as it has been established, 2017’s Justice League is the canon one. However, one The Flash trailer moment suggests otherwise.
Barry and Bruce discuss the possibility of Barry going back in time to save Nora Allen in The Flash‘s trailer, which would not quite work if Batman wasn’t already aware of the Flash’s time travel powers. Likewise, if the Flash is considering going back in time to change the past, then Barry must be somewhat experienced with his time travel powers already. Should that be the case, then Zack Snyder’s Justice League works as a better The Flash setup than the theatrical cut, which did not incorporate time travel. The Flash’s powers are complicated, and it seems like there are at least three DCEU versions of time travel.
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