The Flash might have had a slightly different ending, if the film-makers had gone with a recently revealed ending shown during early screenings.
According to Audience Reactions, early fan screenings of The Flash had a slightly different ending, and it has uploaded it in full to its YouTube channel.
SPOILERS FOR THE FLASH FOLLOW.
Ok here's the ending to The Flash from early screenings, edited by the Audience Reactions channel https://t.co/OYS7qejhRX pic.twitter.com/UFoI2ifaQJ
— Neb | ?️? (@NebsGoodTakes) August 27, 2023
As you can see, the ending is only marginally different, but it has a big impact. The theatrical version sees Barry Allen (played by Ezra Miller) return to the present following his timey-wimey shenanigans, and after saving his dad from prison, he finds Bruce Wayne stepping out of his car. As we now know, this Bruce Wayne is none other than George Clooney.
However, the original ending was a little tighter, stopping just after The Flash says “who the f**k is this?” and never revealing which Batman he finds himself face-to-face with. Here, the film would have cut to black.
The big difference is that the audience was never supposed to see the Batman that he returned to, leaving the door open for the new DCU to essentially be a continuation of DC’s previous films with Barry Allen resetting the universe. It would have been a neat way to explain recasting some DC heroes while keeping others (such as The Flash). The unseen Bruce Wayne would allow The Flash to tie directly into the new Batman introduced in the upcoming film, Batman: The Brave and The Bold.
Fittingly, this isn’t the only alternate ending that was in the mix. Another version of this saw Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and Michael Keaton’s Batman show up outside the courthouse in place of Clooney. Even this ending wasn’t safe, however, with Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy stepping in following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
This time, Supergirl and Keaton’s Batman would have been joined by Henry Cavill’s Superman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be, and we ended up with the Clooney version instead.
IGN’s The Flash review gave it 7/10 and said: “The Flash is an ambitious superhero movie that largely pulls off its tale of two worlds, two Flashes, and two Batmans. The superhero fan service is strong with this one – perhaps too strong at times – but it never fully overshadows Barry Allen’s genuinely tragic and heartfelt story of grief.”
Want to read more about The Flash? Check out when The Flash is heading to Max as well as the grim reason why Michael Keaton’s Batman has retired in the movie.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
