DC FanDome: The first trailer for The Flash is revealed

The first trailer for The Flash features a number of major suit ups!

The Flash is speeding into theaters next year. The film will take Barry Allen on a multiverse-wide adventure, in which he’ll encounter Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne (from Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns) and Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle.

Given its many delays, director changes and multiverse-centric plot, The Flash has been of particular interest to fans. Now, after years of speculation, our first look at Barry Allen’s standalone adventure has arrived. During DC FanDome, director Andy Muschietti treated viewers to a preview of the movie.

The Flash first look

Paving the way for a new universe

Despite being a standalone film, The Flash appears to be instrumental in shaping what the DC Extended Universe will look like moving forward. The franchise suffered from some growing pains during its early stages, as pivotal films like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and 2017’s Justice League received a poor critical and — in some instances — financial reception.

As such, Warner Bros. has slowly moved away from the tone and storylines established by the aforementioned movies. So, what does The Flash have to do with anything? Well, it might be just what Warner Bros. and DC needed for a fresh franchise start.

The movie is based on DC’s popular “Flashpoint” storyline, in which Barry Allen, while traveling through time to save his mother from being murdered, creates an alternate timeline filled with chaos, death and evil superheroes. At the end of the story, the Scarlet Speedster stops himself from traveling back in time in the first place, and in the process, creates a brand-new DC Universe. “Flashpoint” allowed DC to have a fresh start with its comic-book universe, and it’s been long speculated that The Flash will do the same for the DCEU.

If that is indeed what The Flash will do for the franchise, a new DCEU is an exciting prospect, but one that is hard to picture with the little information currently at our disposal. There are two DC movies coming relatively soon after The Flash — Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 16, 2022) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (June 2, 2023). Given the movies’ importance in the DCEU, the idea that the Scarlet Speedster’s film could in any way influence the universe they’re set in is fascinating.

Of course, this is speculation at this point, and we need to wait a little bit more to fully understand what role The Flash will play in the DCEU’s future.

Bringing together the DC Multiverse

Putting speculation aside, one thing that Barry Allen will surely do is bring together the DC multiverse. The comic-book giant has been quite prolific over the decades when it comes to TV and movie adaptations, but most of said projects (excluding, of course, the Arrowverse) have been largely separate from one another.

Now, The Flash has the impressive task of bringing all (or at least, quite a few) of those adaptations under one cozy multiversal roof. As Andy Muschietti explained during an interview with Vanity Fair:

"“This movie […] presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid. [It is] saying, ‘All that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.'”"

This is a clever way to retroactively validate the countless films and television series based on DC characters. It could also provide Warner Bros. with an impressive storyline well to draw from down the line, should the studio choose to do so.

The Flash will speed into theaters on November 4, 2022.

Stay tuned to BamSmackPow for everything DC FanDome.

What did you think about our first look at The Flash? What past DC adaptations would you like to see referenced in the film? Let us know in the comments!