The Flash doesn’t run cheap. Versions of the DC movie have been in various stages of development since the late 1980s, but it wasn’t until 2014 that studio Warner Bros. Pictures announced a 10-movie slate that officially included Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a two-parter Justice League movie, and solo spin-offs starring Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash. Originally dated for 2018, the Ezra Miller-led Flash movie was to release between Zack Snyder’s Justice League Part One (2017) and Part Two (2019), as part of a DC Films universe that (mostly) made it to screen. Five years later, The Flash finally crosses the theatrical finish line on June 16th.
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The Andy Muschietti-directed blockbuster reportedly cost $220 million, according to a CBC interview with The Flash production designer Paul Austerberry. “This movie is a big deal for Warner Bros.,” said the Oscar-winning production designer of The Shape of Water and Muschietti’s IT Chapter Two.
That’s higher than Wonder Woman 1984 and the Dwayne Johnson-starring Black Adam (both reportedly $200 million), and just below the reported budget of 2013’s Man of Steel ($225 million). Only Batman v. Superman and the troubled Justice League cost more at $263 million and $300 million, respectively.
As part of a production that ran from February 2020 to October 2021, The Flash filmed in “two different chunks”: once with Miller playing the present-day Barry Allen who uses his super speed to travel back through time, and again with Miller playing Barry’s younger self from an alternate timeline.
Miller would switch roles every few days, according to Austerberry, who said that the actor worked six days a week with only three days off during the entire shoot. “So, a lot of pressure,” said Austerberry, whose credits include 30 Days of Night, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and The Christmas Chronicles.
Along with two Barrys, the production features two different Batmans in Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, the super-powered feats of Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, Man of Steel-sized action with the return of Michael Shannon’s supervillain General Zod, and other expensive surprises that are mostly being kept out of the marketing.
Warner Bros. screened an unfinished cut of The Flash to rave reviews at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week, where movie theater owners and select press were the first to see the DC movie in its entirety at its debut public screening. This version clocked in around 150 minutes, but there exists an initial assembly cut that ran for four hours.
DC’s The Flash opens only in theaters June 16th. See the first spoiler-free reactions.
