At one time the Flash movie was supposed to be released in early 2018, just a few months after Ezra Miller's full introduction as the Scarlet Speedster in Justice League, but a number of behind-the-scenes setbacks resulted in the movie being set aside and retooled. Last summer at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that The Flash was now being called Flashpoint, meaning that it would adapt the 2011 storyline of the same name. However, a new tidbit of information has us wondering if DC and Warner Bros have decided not to have Flash's first movie be Flashpoint-related anymore.
Buried in its report about Dan Mazeau being hired to pen the screenplay for Armada, an adaptation of the 2015 novel written by Ready Player One author Ernest Cline, THR mentioned that Mazaeu worked on the Flash movie "when it was titled Flashpoint." Making this even more curious is that Borys Kit, who wrote the article, said on Twitter that all he noted was that the Flash movie is no longer being called Flashpoint, not that the movie itself won't adapt that storyline. For those unfamiliar with the original Flashpoint, it saw Barry Allen waking up in a radically different version of the main DC Comics timeline, with changes including Thomas Wayne being Batman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman being at war with one another, and Superman having been imprisoned by the U.S. government since infancy. Flashpoint was later adapted as the Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie and within Season 3 of The Flash TV series.
While certain updates, from Gal Gadot reportedly reprising Wonder Woman in the movie to DC president Geoff Johns saying that the movie would contain Batman elements, have indicated that this Flashpoint could be a relatively faithful adaptation of the original story, in February it was rumored that the movie would make some radical changes, which included Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Dr. Light being the main villains. Regardless, in the wake of Justice League's underwhelming critical and commercial performance, the DC films division has been going through restructuring, and it's possible that as a result, it was decided to make the Flash movie a more conventional standalone story rather than a massive event on the same level as Justice League, if not bigger.
As things stand now, all we officially know about the Flash movie's current development is that Game Night directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have officially signed on as the directors, the position previously held by Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa. Assuming the Flash movie is indeed not adapting Flashpoint anymore, it's also possible that Daley and Goldstein were the catalyst for this change, as they preferred to helm a movie firmly centered on Barry Allen rather than involving other major DC heroes.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates concerning the Flash movie, including when it's expected to come out. For now, you can look forward to the next chapter of the DCEU unfolding when Aquaman swims into theaters on December 21.
