The Flash's Most Surprising Cameo Fulfills a Decades-Long DC Mystery
Warner Bros. finally released The Flash, a movie that has been in development for about ten years, over the weekend. The film's biggest headlines have come out of the various cameo appearances from multiversal doppelgangers for some of DC's most beloved heroes. Of all of them, one in particular shocked fans at CinemaCon and became a topic of conversation for folks who had seen the movie. That particular cameo brings closure to a story more than 25 years in the making, even if most casual viewers probably will never fully understand it. Luckily for you, we have not only a rundown of the specifics, but a quick video to put it in context.
Read beyond this point at your own risk. Minor spoilers beyond this point for The Flash.
At one point in the film, when Barry Allen (Ezra MIller) is moving through the multiverse, the audience gets glimpses of a number of alternate realities. In one of those realities, Nicolas Cage appears as Superman, doing battle with a giant, metal spider. Fans of Smith's likely recognize the reference here; in his stand-up special An Evening With Kevin Smith, the filmmaker revealed that a highly-placed producer at Warner Bros. had an irrational obsession with a scene just like this, and insisted Smith write one into the script for Superman Lives, a project he wrote in the 1990s.
Smith's hilarious retelling of the whole situation lampooned himself, producer Jon Peters, prospective director Tim Burton, and more. He used to tell it, not just in this one DVD, but at speaking engagements and movie screenings around the country for years, cementing it as a key piece of the lore around Superman Lives.
"For the earliest part of my career, I made lots of nods to pop culture," Smith told ComicBook.com. "I can't tell you how happy it makes me at the point in my life whenever pop culture nods back at me. For all the times I ever told that Superman Lives story, it delighted me no end to hear it was echoed in The Flash."
In July, Smith will be hosting a live script reading of Superman Lives at Smodcastle, with some of his friends showing up to do an on-stage readthrough. You can get tickets to that event here.
The Flash arrived in theaters on June 16th, promising to reshape the DC Multiverse with the help of familiar faces and brand-new heroes. Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) ventures to the past to change history, resulting in massive repercussions for the future. Forced to team up with another version of Barry, the mysterious Kryptonian known as Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and the iconic Batman (Michael Keaton), the Scarlet Speedster is forced to reckon with his mistakes and save a doomed reality. The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti, written by Christina Hodson from a story by Joby Harold, and produced by Barbara Muschietti.