How Warner Bros. made that awesome cameo in the final scene of THE FLASH

The flash is in theaters now, and boy, is it a great superhero movie! It has so many elements of surprise, and such great acting and storytelling, it’s a flagship for DC. Then, as we move away from the film’s release, more information is given about the making of the film and it’s a lot of fun to listen to. But be warned, as we move forward, we enter major spoiler territory.

Throughout the movie, we got to see different alternate universe versions of the main characters, and a super fun surprise at the end of the movie was when Barry came back to his life, believing everything was back to normal, and got a phone call from his old friend Bruce Wayne. When he pulls the car around the corner, he’s not Ben AffleckIt’s Bruce coming out, but Batman and robin (1997) protagonist George ClooneyInstead it’s Bruce Wayne! It came as a shock to Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), and it was a shock to the audience as well.

A recent report from The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the scene was surprisingly filmed just weeks after a few phone calls, two showings of the film, and a half day of shooting in January.

It was also the third ending made for the film, which director Andy Muschietti accomplished through three separate regimes at Warners. The flash serves as a one-film studio that has survived and evolved in a rapidly changing media landscape, dealing with the dictates of several sets of studio heads and a multibillion-dollar acquisition.

The flashas it was originally conceived and filmed, concluded on the steps of the courthouse with Supergirl, played by Sasha Calleand Batman, played by Michael Keaton, who was already featured in the film as a returned Batman. He was meant to point out that Barry didn’t reset the timeline like he thought he did. It was an ending that was screen-tested time and time again, one that reversed the deaths of Supergirl and Batman early in the film.

But through the different stages of leadership at DC, that has changed, and the second iteration was still on the courthouse steps, but now Calle’s Supergirl has been joined by Superman, played by Henry Cavilland Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot. Keaton also stayed.

Cavill would make a cameo in the DC film Black Adam and was being groomed to return to the role in a brand new Superman film. Supergirl was kept because even though the executives were killing development on a Supergirl standalone film, they were open to her returning in some form and didn’t want the last picture the public saw of her to be her death. Meanwhile, the studio was developing a third Wonder Woman installment with the director Patti Jenkins and star Gadot. This was a nice way to keep Wonder Woman in the cultural conversation. This finale was shot in September involving Miller, Cavill and Gadot as well as Keaton and Calle.

Then came the acquisition of James Gunn AND Peter Safran like DC’s new bosses, who saw that having Cavill and Gadot in the new ending potentially promised something their plans wouldn’t deliver. One of the first actions the duo took was to scrap Cavill’s Superman film, and they parted ways with Jenkins, effectively killing off the third Wonder Woman installment.

The filmmakers, according to multiple people associated with the film, then looked for alternatives but wanted to keep the germ of the idea: Barry Allen thinks everything is fine, but then pulled out the carpet at the last moment. They also went back to an idea joked earlier in the filmmaking process: “How many Batmen can we get?” Clooney was brought up as a long shooter, but Gunn and Safran jumped at the idea.

The pitch, as well as the rough cut of the film, were sent to Clooney, and the rest is history. I love that the studio managed to keep this fun cameo a surprise for the fans. It was really a great way to wrap up the movie.