The news that Warner Bros. and DC Films are planning a Flashpoint adaption for Ezra Miller's The Flash has been a source of great speculation by fans. In a recent interview Ezra Miller seemingly confirmed some of that speculation, by admitting the movie has the potential to rip the current continuity of the DCEU apart.
For those who are unaware, Flashpoint gets its name from a comic book arc from 2011. Penned by writer Geoff Johns, who has taken a lead creative role in the DCEU, the comic version of Flashpoint saw Barry Allen run back in time to save his mother from being murdered. Yet what was meant to be an act of heroism turned out to be as disaster as saving his mother caused Barry to completely flip the timeline of his world and eventually resulted in the DC Universe being rebooted completely in the New 52. (Although recently the source of the changes in the DCU have been retconned.) If taken at face value, Miller's comments suggest the movie version of Flashpoint will do the exactly the same.
Related: ‘Batman Story’ Will Be a Big Part of Flashpoint
In an interview with EW, Miller said of the planned Flash standalone film:
What fans understand when they hear Flashpoint would be almost like hearing a word like ‘Crisis.’ We start to understand that our precious DC universe will inevitably be torn asunder to an endless, headache-inducing fabric of multiversality. The DC Hyper-Extended Multiverse, as I plan to call it. Quote me!
If The Flash's standalone movie does move forward and it adapts the Flashpoint storyline, it won't be the first time that has happened. An animated movie was created retelling the story of the arc, and The CW's Flash TV series tackled Flashpoint at the beginning of season 3. Yet in both cases the impact of the story was very limited. The animated film wrapped up most plot threads in the one standalone movie, and The Flash season 3 saw Barry revert to the original timeline (with few lasting changes) within a couple of episodes. Miller's comments suggest the DCEU's version of the tale will have much bigger consequences.
Miller makes it sound like Flashpoint will offer an opportunity to reboot the universe, or at the very least, introduce brand-new elements to its world, such as the multiverse. With rumors that Flashpoint's existence is dependent on Justice League's success, a reboot would make more sense. The DCEU could use the Flash-centric movie to completely re-tool the universe and characters that have been created so far. Flashpoint could allow DC Films to cherry-pick elements of the movies and, to use Miller's verbiage, "tear asunder" what's been unpopular about the DCEU, but still keep the elements that fans and critics enjoy most.
However, it should also be mentioned that Miller is known to be rather excitable in interviews, especially when it comes to the status of the DCEU and his place in it. Although his comments imply some universe shifting events, it could end up being much more mundane and limited than expected. It's probable that Flashpoint will be larger in large scale than any previous adaptation of the story, but it still could all end up getting wrapped up in a single movie and have no real impact on the rest of the DCEU.
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Source: EW
