The Flash's Supergirl Breakout Scene Had Some R-Rated Moments That Got Cut
Andy Muschietti's new film "The Flash" takes place largely in a parallel universe. Early in the movie, during a moment of grief, the title hero (Ezra Miller) discovers he can run so quickly that he passes through an aperture in space/time and enters a mysterious pocket dimension called the Speed Force. From this pocket dimension, the Flash can travel through time. Perhaps recklessly, the Flash travels into his own past to save the life of his mother. Naturally, this causes a major error in causality, creating a timeline where there are two Barry Allens. Any student of "Back to the Future" might have predicted such a mishegoss.
What Barry didn't count on, however, was that causality works in both directions. The Flash's time travel shenanigans didn't just create an alternate future, but also an alternate past. As such, when Barry Allen goes to Wayne Manor to enlist the aid of Batman, he finds not his familiar friend Ben Affleck playing the role, but a 70-year-old Michael Keaton instead. The two Flashes and the elderly Bruce also know that a certain Kryptonian superbeing crashed on Earth years before, only in this timeline, they are being held in a special Siberian prison. The Flash, the Flash, and Batman attempt to break Superman out of prison, only to find that it is, instead, his cousin Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl (Sasha Calle).
Supergirl's escape is brutal. Having been kept in solitary confinement in a concrete silo for years, the superheroine is ready to take off some heads. When she is exposed to sunlight and develops her Kryptonian superpowers, many an ass is kicked.
In a recent interview with Collider, actress Calle even pointed out that the scene was originally even more violent than it was in the film's final cut.
Too R-rated
Calle admitted that she loved doing stunts, and was a little upset to learn that some of her stunts had been cut because, well, they were just too violent. She doesn't say what specific violent acts were excised but does hope to see a completed edit of the silo scene someday. In her words:
"The silo scene was a lot longer. Yeah, there was ... I did a loooot of stunts for that scene. And some, I think, we're a little too 'rated R' [laughs] And they ended up kind of, you know, bringing it in. But because there were so many visual effects ... but maybe one day I can ask Andy [Muschietti] to let me see them. Because there were so many [stunts] and I just, you know, as much as I loved stunts, I would love to see it. I would love to see the wholeness of those shots."
Given the current state of the Blu-ray market, there's every reason to believe that an extended cut of "The Flash," perhaps even an R-rated one, would eventually come to home video. While "The Flash" is lighter in tone than some of its predecessors, it's still part of the ballyhooed DC Extended universe, sometimes called the Snyderverse. As such, an increased level of violence would merely match films like "Man of Steel" and Zack Snyder's extended version of "Justice League."
An ultraviolent Supergirl is merely in keeping with the series at large.
Releasing more of Calle's stunts would also provide justice for the actress who, because of the current state of movies based on DC comics, may not be back for any sequels.
The future of Supergirl
As many likely know, the Snyderverse is coming to an end. Producers James Gunn and Peter Safran have recently been assigned the task of rebuilding the DC Comic cinematic universe from the ground up. Their approach has been to shake the Etch-A-Sketch and erase everything currently drawn out. That means all of the films in the "Man of Steel" series are being brought to an end and an entirely new continuity will begin with a film called "Superman: Legacy."
This means that "The Flash" may likely be the only time Calle gets to play Supergirl. This is a pity, as her stern character and violent nature reveal a character just at the beginning of their arc. If "The Flash" were in a position to receive a sequel, or were poised to have a "Supergirl" solo spinoff film, Calle could reappear as someone calmer and more heroic. Supergirl knew how to fight a bad guy, of course — and she does a good deal of damage to General Zod and his army in "The Flash" — but hadn't yet lived among humans or discovered why the Earth was worth saving the same way Superman might have.
If a "Supergirl" solo film is not going to be made, then the least the producers of "The Flash" can do is release an extended version of the movie with as much footage of Calle as possible. She wants to see her own stunts, so it's possible that everyone else wants to as well.