Needless to say, a lot of stuff was revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2017. But despite a new trailer for this Novembers Justice League movie, a slight update on the slate of upcoming DC Extended Universe films, even though we weren’t given any new release dates, and apparently a bit of Aquaman footage shown, that they aren’t releasing even though they released a Justice League trailer last year despite it being over a year away(groan), We didn’t get that much new information on any of the upcoming films. That is except for one piece of information regarding the solo Flash movie. Unfortunately, they didn’t announce a new director, the film has already lost two so far, but rumors have been circulating lately that Robert Zemeckis, who you may best know for directing the Back to the Future movies, will be the one in the directors chair. What we did find out is that the working title for the film is…

For those unfamiliar with the name, it’s a storyline from 2011 written by Geoff Johns. In it, The Flash(Barry Allen) goes back in time to prevent his mother from being murdered and as a result, he wakes up in an entirely new timeline and the changes are pretty insane. This actually explains the reports that said the movie would also feature Ray Fisher’s Cyborg(who is also making his debut in this November’s Justice League) because Cyborg played a major role in the Flashpoint storyline. I would highly recommend reading the trade paperback and/or watching the excellent animated movie based on it, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

Some people are, understandably a little surprised that they are using such a big storyline for the first solo Flash movie. But there’s two reasons I think its not that big deal and I think it actually makes sense to do it at the point it will supposedly come out.

The first reason is this. As I mentioned before, we got an update on the slate of movies coming up in the next few years. Its possible this slate might be out of order apart from Aquaman which is set for release in December of next year, but here it is:

Aquaman

The Batman

Suicide Squad 2

Shazam!

Batgirl

Wonder Woman 2

Flashpoint

Justice League Dark

Green Lantern Corps

Flashpoint is the 7th film on this list and if you count Justice League, we’ve had five films so far in the DCEU:

Man of Steel

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Suicide Squad

Wonder Woman

Justice League

If the slate revealed at SDCC is legitimate, that will make Flashpoint the 12th film in the DCEU. By that point, we will have had an established universe and status quo(for lack of a better term). So no, I don’t think it would be too soon to use the Flashpoint storyline.

The second reason is this. Needless to say, The DCEU movies, apart from Wonder Woman, have been very divisive. Some people love them and some people hate them. Which means there are big issues people have. Slight spoilers for the Flashpoint comic, but Barry’s messing with the timeline results in a sort of universe reset that led to what’s known as the New 52 continuity. This has led some to believe this means doing this movie will lead to a full reboot of the DCEU. That is obviously not going to be the case. If anything, this will resemble what happened at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, except not nearly as many changes. One example of something people aren’t a fan of in these movies is Jared Leto’s Joker. I personally feel the problems with his Joker have more to do with us not having seen very much of him. Even David Ayer says he wasn’t fully satisfied with how Suicide Squad, which he directed, turned out and he wished he had made Joker the main villain in the movie rather than Enchantress. But lets say a future and more lengthy appearance by Jared Leto’s Joker doesn’t change the majority of peoples minds about him. Flashpoint could result in a new Joker eventually emerging in a later film, whether it means Leto will rethink his approach to the character or if a new actor will replace him as the Clown Prince of Crime. The latter is probably more likely since Leto hasn’t committed to returning to the role and he hates that so much of the Joker’s footage was cut from the final version of Suicide Squad. So, might I suggest Robert Carlyle?

Oh, and speaking of the Joker, there’s one particular reason a lot of people have been hoping to see a Flashpoint movie. Everyone knows how the origin of Batman goes. When Bruce Wayne was a child, him and his parents were on their way home from a night out and were mugged and it ended with Thomas and Martha Wayne being murdered. But in the Flashpoint universe, it was pretty much the opposite. Bruce was killed and his parents survived. This not only led to Thomas Wayne becoming Batman, but also Martha Wayne becoming the Joker. Now at the beginning of Batman v Superman, we saw the death of Bruce’s parents again, but there’s one thing about this version that stood out. Bruce’s parents have always essentially been played by throwaway actors. Why? Because yes, Thomas and Martha do play an important role in Bruce’s story, but regardless, its a small role. So why go threw the trouble of getting even b-list actors? Heck, the people who played them in the 1989 movie don’t even have pictures on their IMDb pages. But in BVS, they were played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan. Those are some pretty big names to get for characters that will only be on screen for a few minutes at most. Lauren Cohan most people will know as Maggie from The Walking Dead and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who also is currently on the Walking Dead, played The Comedian in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie. Ever since their casting was confirmed, people have been hoping it meant a Flashpoint movie would happen eventually with them playing those previously mentioned alternate versions of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

There’s been no official announcement about Morgan and Cohan being signed onto the film, but I think its a safe bet that they’ll be in it, especially since Morgan has said a couple times that he wants to do it and it would be really awesome to see. I wouldn’t be surprised if when the two of them agreed to be in BVS, they also agreed to come back if/when they do a Flashpoint movie. It would’ve been awesome if during the panel when they announced the film, the two of them walked on stage, announcing they’d be back.

However, is there a downside? Yes, and it regards Lauren Cohan playing the Joker. Now it has nothing to do with her performance. Im sure she’ll do great. But you know that as soon as they announce that she’s doing it, people will freak out, start screaming political correctness or something and complain about how the Joker shouldn’t be played by a woman. It’s gonna be what’s going on with the reveal of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor on Doctor Who all over again. You can try to explain to them how it’s in the comic and how it makes sense and/or say they should give her a chance before you judge, but it won’t matter. they’ll still complain. (groans)

And just for fun, lets talk casting. Now a lot of this would be role reprisal.I imagine this movie will be a lot like Captain America: Civil War in the sense that all the main cast do get a good amount of focus, but it is first and foremost a Flash movie. So Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Ray Fisher as Cyborg would all return, along with Amber Heard as Mera and the other confirmed cast members we already knew would be in this movie, those being Billy Crudup as Henry Allen(Barry’s father) and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West(Barry’s love interest).

Let’s start with the Flash’s archenemy, Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash. There are a lot of fan favorites for who to play Eobard Thawne, including, but not limited to, Matthew McConaughey, Michael C. Hall and Adam Driver. Any of these would be great but my top pick would probably be McConaughey. His voice in particular would fit perfectly for the character. Who would you pick out of these three actors?

 

Next up is Nora Allen, Barry’s mother. My top pick would be Winona Ryder. Im not entirely sure why but she was the first actress that came to mind when I thought about who should play this character.

 

This next casting choice is less of a fan casting and more of a speculation. And that’s Armie Hammer as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Armie Hammer has been teasing and trolling about possibly having a role of some sort in the DCEU and like many, I think it’s obvious that he’s playing Hal Jordan. He looks the part, he can do action and comedy. He’d be great in the role.

 

There are a lot of other characters that were involved in the story like Shazam!(or Captain Thunder as he was referred to in the Flashpoint universe) or Captain Atom, But this film would already be really crowded so i don’t think we need to throw them in too. The Rogues(Flash’s line of villains) also appear in the story, but throwing all of them into the movie without proper pre-establishment would be like opening Spider-Man: Homecoming with Spidey fighting the Sinister Six. You’d just be sitting in the theater going “Wait. Where’d these guys come from?!”

Bottom line, I cannot wait for this movie. With a storyline this awesome, this could easily be one of the best comic book movies ever made. What do you think of the news about Flashpoint? Are you excited for it? Do you think it will be fairly faithful to the comic or do you think they’ll make some big changes to it? And be sure to let me know what other topics you’d like to see me do a Kacinema Thoughts on. Whether it be some sort of news on an upcoming movie, show, game, etc. or any topic related to such.

Next time, we get back to movie reviews with Spider-Man: Homecoming.