via Warner Bros.
For a movie about a superhero famous for getting to places really fast, The Flash has had the most circuitous route to the big screen possible, and even now that it’s only a few weeks away it’s still tripping up over its own feet. The marketing for Ezra Miller‘s first solo film as the Scarlet Speedster (plus Michael Keaton’s grand return as Batman) has frequently stumbled as it’s been picked apart by the DC fandom for its reliance on nostalgia and perceived poor CGI.
With the release of a new Japanese trailer, The Flash is doing it all over again, thanks to a curious detail that seemingly spoils the film’s big twist. As pointed out by TheDirect, the following international promo features the same scene contained in the most recent trailer but with one key difference — during a confrontation between the two Barry Allens, the second Barry is shown to have a black tentacle crawling over his shoulder.
The inference is clear, then: Barry #2 is Dark Flash, the mysterious Venom-like villain of the movie who’s only been glimpsed so far in merch. While this is a bit of a huge goof for Warner Bros.’s international marketing team to make, maybe the bigger problem here is that folks are hardly surprised by the spoiler, as many already worked out the twist months ago. As @HailEternal went viral for pointing out:
I mean, it’s not like Keaton’s Bruce Wayne was going to be Dark Flash, right?
This is old news for those who have been paying attention to the leaks.
In the grand scheme of shocking superhero movie twists, this ain’t exactly the end of Infinity War we’re talking about here.
It seems like the only people who are shocked are those who’ve put precisely zero thought into the film before now.
Real-life drama has also apparently colored certain people’s expectations over Barry #2 becoming a bad guy.
The Flash releases on June 16.
