Movies - TV
The Flash Super Bowl Trailer Breakdown: The Flash Points To The Future Of The DC Universe
By HANNAH SHAW-WILLIAMS
AND JOSHUA MEYER
Five years after it was slated for release, “The Flash” is finally coming to theaters on June 16, 2023. Its trailer dropped during Super Bowl LVII, revealing a bunch of bombshells about the story — and the superheroes that audiences can expect to see in this long-awaited and much anticipated movie.
Flashpoint
In the “Flashpoint” comic arc, Barry Allen travels back in time using the Speed Force to save his mother from being murdered by the villainous Reverse-Flash. “The Flash” won’t be an exact adaptation of the “Flashpoint” arc, but DC Studios CEO James Gunn said that this movie “resets everything,” providing a segue into the new DC Universe.
Batman
Michael Keaton reprises his role as Batman in “The Flash,” but that was revealed in the first teaser back in 2021. The Super Bowl trailer, however, mixes and matches the iconography of different Batmen, in keeping with the multiversal “Flashpoint” thrust — so Keaton isn’t the only Batman in the film.
Batfleck
Ben Affleck’s Batman makes an appearance in the trailer, too, when he warns Barry Allen about the dangers of messing around with the timelines. Viewers even get to see Affleck riding a version of the Batcycle in an action scene where he zooms under a police car tumbling across the street.
Return of Zod
Michael Shannon’s General Zod makes a comeback in “The Flash,” but his first appearance was in Superman’s “Man of Steel.” In the new timeline created by Barry, Superman isn’t around to stop Zod’s invasion of the planet, so it looks as if moviegoers will see a war between Zod’s forces and Earth’s remaining superheroes.