What You Need to Know About the Flash, DC’s Next Big Movie

What You Need to Know About the Flash, DC’s Next Big Movie

After years of delays and major stumbling blocks in the form of studio disputes, director exits and multiple script rewrites, The Flash movie is finally on track to release. The DCEU didn’t have the best 2021, and DC fans are hopeful it’ll finally bring the excitement and fervour of the comics to the big screen in 2023.

Here’s everything we know about The Flash so far, including when it’ll release in Australia.

DC’s The Flash: Release Date

The Flash was set to release on November 3, 2022 in Australia. But that’s since been pushed to June 22, 2023.

Although we were starting to wonder if it would ever come to fruition, Warner Bros. is not going to throw away a movie that’s its Spider-Verse, its No Way Home and its Multiverse of Madness rolled into one. It’s widely expected to be Warner Bros.’ answer to the mega-popular Marvel multiverse movies, with appearances by Supergirl and multiple Batmen — but in the past few months, things haven’t gone The Flash’s way.

Usually, a movie moving ahead as scheduled usually isn’t newsworthy. That’s what happens on basically every single movie. But The Flash is an exception.

The latest on The Flash

The film’s star, Ezra Miller, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Recently, they’ve been accused of abuse and in trouble with authorities, which resulted in the star largely being sidelined for promotion of their most recent film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. There’s also a pattern of this type of behaviour going back a few years when Miller reportedly choked a fan. However, unlike in Fantastic Beasts, Miller is the star of The Flash. There’s no hiding them. And so, people have been wondering, what will the studio do with this hugely important movie? According to a new report in Variety, nothing at all. The studio is moving ahead with the film as planned.

The Flash: Cast

the flash movie 2022
Image: Warner Bros. / DC

The Flash will be led by Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash, and he’s bringing a few friends along for the ride with the help of director Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Christina Hodson.

Newcomer Sasha Calle will be playing iconic hero Supergirl in the film, Michael Keaton is making a wild return as Batman and Ben Affleck will be on board also playing Batman. (More on this shortly.)

They’ll be joined by Ron Livingston as Henry Allen, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West and Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen.

Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Rudy Mancuso and Luke Brandon Field have also been reportedly cast in undisclosed roles.

So, what’s the story?

It’s surprising how little we know about The Flash and where it’ll take our titular hero. When it was announced, many assumed it would be an origin story of a sort, but appearances in Batman v Superman and Justice League have already established the DCEU’s Barry Allen as a hero.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will follow Barry Allen (aka The Flash) as he uses time travel in an attempt to save his parents from being murdered in the past. No further details are available, and it’s unclear where those pesky ‘multiverse’ rumours come from — but it’s easy to make assumptions, given that description.

After all, nothing is ever simple when it comes to time travel.

At CinemaCon in April we saw a ton of new footage, starting with Barry in some kind of office and he’s talking about how time has a pattern. Certain events and certain people are just always drawn to each other. He’s at first talking to a camera but we also see him outside his childhood home, in a new Flash outfit, looking sad.

Then, from behind, we see a man with long grey hair in his pajamas. He’s standing at a bookshelf when a laser reveals itself and does a retinal scan. The book shelves part and we see a room with at least five, maybe more, Batsuits in it. Tim Burton Batsuits. All new and different.

“How do you explain that except…fate?” Barry says, finishing his thought about time. That leads into a montage of action scenes. Lots of slow-motion as Barry does things super fast, a brief shot of Supergirl (Sasha Calle), a scene of Batman (though which one isn’t clear) on a Bat-Cycle that looks like the Bat-Pod from The Dark Knight. It’s not that bike though, this one only has two wheels in front, both of which are very thin and close to each other. There’s a broken Bat-cowl on the ground too, all of which leads to the shot we’ve already seen of the multiple Barry’s asking someone “Are you in?”

Cut to Michael Keaton, with great hair, in a new, but still recognisable Batsuit. “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts,” he says, quoting himself from a great many years before.

The footage, while incredibly awesome, made it seem almost like Keaton’s Batman was the second lead in the film. Which maybe he is. Or, maybe, this footage was cut specifically so that exhibitors at CinemaCon thought more about a new Batman movie in their theatres, and not an Ezra Miller movie. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting 10 months before The Flash hits theatres.

Is The Flash a multiverse movie?

the batman flash movie multiverse
Image: Warner Bros. / DC

Multiverse movies are in, and The Flash is no exception.

Following hot on the heels of The Arrowverse, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessit appears The Flash will feature its very own DC multiverse, likely stemming from Barry Allen’s meddling with time.

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So far, we don’t know much about how this multiverse will play out, but given we already have confirmed appearances from two different versions of Batman (Affleck, Keaton) and an appearance from Supergirl, it’s likely we’ll see some wild alternate universes packed into The Flash.

When time travel is involved, things tend to get messy, so expect some wild things when The Flash finally releases.

Where The Flash fits into the DCEU

The timeline of The Flash is currently unknown, but it’s likely the film will continue the story laid out in Justice League. The plot here does get a bit confusing, because Justice League and Zack Snyder’s Justice League present two different timelines, in which Barry Allen grows in different ways.

In Zack Snyder’s Justice League (which isn’t technically ‘canon’), Barry is able to harness the mystical Speed Force (which gives him strength) and use it to reverse time and save the planet. In the original version of Justice League, this doesn’t happen — but Barry’s canon appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice implies he does know about time travel — so it’s unclear what powers this version of Barry Allen will have.

DC and Warner Bros. have yet to strictly define the timelines in which the upcoming DC movies are taking place, so it’s hard to say where exactly The Flash fits. Watch both movies to be safe.

What you should watch before The Flash

the flash movie crossover what to watch
Image: DC / CW

Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen was first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in a wild cameo appearance which really makes no sense without the context of Justice League and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. 

It’s actually best to watch Justice League first if you want to understand the timeline of the modern DCEU, but the ending sequence of Zack Snyder’s Justice League also provides the missing pieces to understand why The Flash appears in Batman v Superman.

That means the ‘correct’ order to watch The Flash’s history is:

  • Justice League
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League (new scenes and Knightmare sequence)
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

When you’re done with those, you can also check out the recent CW crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths for a great little cameo where Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen gets to meet Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen from The Flash TV series. It’s not necessary, but it’s very fun.


The Flash is currently set to release on June 22, 2023. Why not check out all the other sci-fi, horror and fantasy films coming our way this year.