As the first DC Comics film set to come out after Zack Snyder's Justice League, the upcoming Flash movie is a bit of a mystery. We know that Ezra Miller is attached to star in the film, and that LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are currently working on the script, but that's pretty much where the solid info ends. One big question that's been hanging is how the movie will fit into the growing DC Cinematic Universe, and how it might employ other established characters. Well, if recent comments from Phil Lord are an indication, then it seems that Flash will be connected to the cinematic universe, but is expected to operate as its own thing within the continuity.
Lord was recently a guest on an episode of the YouTube-based Hippojuice Podcast (about 8:58 in), and during the lengthy conversation dropped a few hints about what he's doing with long-time writing/directing partner Chris Miller on the Flash project. For what should be obvious reasons, he didn't really talk in-depth about his work, but he did say that he believes the main character will be Barry Allen, and that the direction they are going with it is to make it an independent narrative. Or as Lord put it,
We’re more trying to stick with the cinematic universe… it really is its own thing, and kind of a stand-alone movie. We’re just trying to think of the best story. I think you guys will like it, it’s kind of a different take on superhero stuff.
The subject actually came up as a result of Phil Lord talking about how The Flash film will differ from the popular Flash television series that will be wrapping up its first season this week. The filmmaker noted that he and Chris Miller are still trying to "break a story" for their feature, but did add that there is very much a consciousness of the show and that they are actively "trying to carve out space for the movie that’s apart from that."
The Flash feature will definitely have some challenges ahead of it because of that TV show, and as a result it will be fascinating to see how it inevitably works around it. Assuming that The CW doesn't cancel it, the Flash series will be in its fourth season by the time the film rolls around in 2018, and that's a lot of time to tell a lot of different Barry Allen stories. Surely the TV and film departments at Warner Bros. will work together to make sure that one doesn't get too much in the way of the other, but it will be an interesting and unprecedented juggling act. (Smallville may have been running at the same time that Superman Returns was in theaters, but they were hardly telling similar aspects of the same story).
With production on the Flash film not likely to start until at least the second half of next year, we probably won't get many official updates about the project for a while now. Still, it remains a curiosity.
