Flash: How did this incredible cameo stay a secret until the end?

Warning – The article below contains spoilers for “The Flash” as it revisits its final scene and one of its major surprises. Please continue if you haven’t seen it yet.

He was forbidden to do so, but no: still with the murder of his mother, which happened when he was a child, Barry Allen uses his power to go back in time and change the past. Without doubting the present for a second.

Loosely inspired by comics “Smile”, The Flash sends the superhero into an alternate reality where Batman no longer has the face of Ben Affleck, but Michael Keaton. Where there is no Superman, but Supergirl (Sasha Kale). And where there is already another version of the bar.

So the challenge of the feature film is to pick up the pieces and repair the timeline… but the DC hero can’t help but leave a very small change to clean up his father. And it affects his reality, almost unchanged with one major exception: Bruce Wayne no longer has the features of Ben Affleck, or even Michael Keaton, but… George Clooney.

The fact that the actor takes on this role, which he spits at least once a year in an interview, can be argued. However, the surprise is big and unexpected. And that it almost never happened because it’s the third ending that’s being discussed.

Just a year ago, The Flash was supposed to be the cornerstone of the DCEU. The film that gave him a second wind jumped into the multiverse with both feet and multiplied his abilities. The feature film was then supposed to end in the same location, in front of the Palace of Justice, with Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Batman in front of the bar. A way to tell that he didn’t fix as many things as he wanted to.

Shown in several test screenings, this ending, which canceled the deaths of Superman and Batman, was followed by two more characters in September 2022. And not least because the trio was joined by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), but especially by Henry Cavill’s Superman. , who was then preparing to return in the Black Adam post-credits scene.

Aside from being a replacement athlete coming into the game and critiquing his first rush, the English actor won’t be back in the DCEU for long. Although rumors of a Man of Steel sequel have been circulating recently since his reappearance, the death of the shared universe and its rebirth under the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran have been officially announced in December 2022.

Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill are making their own departures, and rumors are spreading very quickly that the two actors have been axed from The Flash. True, even if the actor passes himself at the beginning of the story. Because the last scene has to be reshot and can no longer open to the future of the DCEU, which will become the DC Universe.

Wanting to keep this idea of ​​the outcome of Barry’s actions alive without revealing anything, director Andy Muschietti would put a recurring joke from pre-production back on the table: “How many Batmans can we have in a movie?” James Gunn and Peter Safran took the idea of ​​George Clooney back very seriously.

How many Batmans can we get in the movie?

Alongside his agent, who has been screened for much of the film, the duo manage to convince 1997’s Batman to come and shoot this unique scene. And the footage took place in January of this year at the Warner studio, with George Clooney, but also with Ezra Miller, whose behavior (charges of harassment, disorderly conduct and theft, in addition to two orders restricting 12 and 18-year-old minors) almost buried the project.

At a time when it is sometimes very difficult to keep his surprises a secret (Spider-Man No Way Home knows something about it, but if some leaks could be investigated by his studio to increase the hype), such as George’s cameo, can Clooney keep a secret? Although the shooting only lasted in the morning?

George in hiding

as explained The Hollywood Reporter, this ending was not tested in public, unlike the previous two. Including when the feature film is screened at CinemaCon (an international cinema convention held in Las Vegas) at the end of April, or in the press in the following weeks.

The scene was there, and the audience realized that the Bruce Wayne they were about to see did not have Ben Affleck’s head. But the film was cut before the reveal, and it took a week before the final version was released.

On Tuesday, June 6, the organized screening we attended contained the missing footage. And we were surprised by George Clooney’s return as Bruce Wayne, as much as we realized how well-kept the secret was.