WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the ending of The Flash. Read at your own risk.
The Flash ended with a last-minute twist when they revealed that George Clooney became the new iteration of Bruce Wayne in the DCEU after Barry Allen messed up the timeline.
Clooney's surprise cameo appearance marked his return to the role more than 25 years after last playing him in Batman & Robin. The ending also indicated that the minor detail that Barry changed in order to save his father caused yet again another change in the DCEU timeline.
Nevertheless, it was a great surprise for fans as Clooney's appearance marks another easter egg in the history of Batman on the big screen and it's also a nod to the multiple variants of the character that the film explored.
However, as it turns out, that wasn't the original ending of the film and there were two previous versions that they shot before they settled on the final one that they showed.
The First Two Original Endings of The Flash
A report from The Hollywood Reporter revealed that The Flash wasn't supposed to end with the reveal that Clooney became the new variant of Bruce Wayne in the DCEU and there were two endings that they initially conceived before this.
The first original ending featured Sasha Calle's Supergirl and Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne on the steps of the courthouse where they reveal that Barry's actions did not lead to a timeline.
In other words, the film would have indicated that Calle's Supergirl and Keaton's Batman will continue their tenure in the DCEU moving forward. It also reverses their respective deaths during the earlier part of the movie.
However, when David Zaslav took over the ownership of the studio under Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy were tasked to oversee the DC franchise for a meanwhile and conceived a new ending for the film.
In the second version, the ending will still be set in the courtroom steps. However, this time around, Calle's Supergirl is joined by Henry Cavill's Superman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.
During this time, Cavill was about to officially make his return to the DCEU through his cameo appearance in Black Adam while a third Wonder Woman film was still in development with Gadot and Patty Jenkins.
The George Clooney Ending
When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the DC franchise and were delegated as the chairmen of DC Studios, the ending was changed once again as Cavill was let go to continue playing Superman and the third Wonder Woman film was shelved.
The filmmakers were thinking of an idea regarding how they can change the ending while retaining the idea of Barry messing up the timeline. After the idea of Clooney returning to the role came up, Gunn and Safran started negotiating with the actor.
After Clooney agreed, the new and final ending was eventually shot around January this year on the Warner Bros. lot. Clooney and Miller showed up on set for a quick shoot and the two also interacted between takes.
The studio kept the ending in secrecy for months as they didn't show it on test screenings and did not also include it during the advanced screening at CinemaCon last April. It was eventually shown during the press screening earlier this month.
Now, the public is aware that Clooney briefly returned to the role and it became a big surprise that a lot of the audience did not expect. Obviously, he won't be continuing the role moving forward and his appearance was just a fun easter egg.
This situation certainly shows that three different regimes of the DC franchise have their own agenda and it's a progression of how things can change when there is a new management at the top that have their own vision for the future of the DC universe on screen.
Also Read: The Flash: Teddy Sears Breaks Silence on His Alleged Cameo
The Flash is showing in theaters everywhere. You can check more details about it here.
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