What Does “Man of Steel” Mean for a Flash Movie?

Superman vs the Flash

With Man of Steel opening this week, it’s no secret that the future of DC Comics’ super-heroes on screen is tied to the success of the new Superman film. The question, of course, is what form might that future take? With the success of The Avengers, there’s been a lot of talk about a possible Justice League movie, but of course Marvel didn’t launch the Avengers on its own: They launched four solo films featuring different heroes, then brought them together. If “Man of Steel” does well, DC could jump straight into the team movie, or they could do a Marvel-style slow build — and Mike Ryan at Huffington Post suggests that Flash might be the ideal viewpoint character to tie them together.

DC has had a Flash movie officially in development for almost a decade now. Back in 2004, Warner Bros. announced David Goyer was writing a script and would direct. It’s since been through multiple directors and writers. Early treatments would feature both Wally West and Barry Allen, while later treatments focused exclusively on Barry Allen. The last real news came in 2010, when DC announced the Green Lantern script team would be writing a Flash film based on Geoff Johns’ work. Of course when the Green Lantern movie performed less than WB had hoped, everything non-Superman or Batman went on the back burner again. We’ve heard a few rumblings since then, but little else. Everything’s riding on “Man of Steel”: If it succeeds, we can count on more DC movies. If not, we can expect more years of development hell.

But if it does succeed…

Warner Bros. will probably go straight to the Justice League, and if that does well enough (WB seems really big on testing the waters for every. single. move.), start spinning off other characters into their own films.

Barring an ensemble breakout, the Flash is probably in the best position to be the next solo hero. No one at WB seems to have a clue how to make Wonder Woman work on screen. Green Lantern didn’t exactly thrill audiences the first time. As for Batman, the Nolan trilogy is still fresh in everyone’s minds. And the Flash has collected several stories and scripts over the past eight years.

Until then, we’ve got the animated Flashpoint Paradox coming to home video this summer, and we can always look back at the 1990s TV series.

And of course there are fan films, like “Iris” and this fan trailer for The Flash in the style of Zach Snyder:

What do you think? Are the odds in favor of a Flash movie in the next few years? Or will we still be waiting when the New 52 is old, Didio and Johns have retired, and the hot new talent of 2026 is bringing back his childhood favorite Wally West in the all-digital Flash: Re-Rebirth?

Share

13 thoughts on “What Does “Man of Steel” Mean for a Flash Movie?

  1. Rodrigo Silva

    I’m a huge Flash fan and i hope a Flash movie now would be very interesting. In fact i actually made my own concepts for a possible movie too. Take a look on my page at cghub guys.

    Reply
  2. BuriedAlien

    For the love of Carmine Infantino, don’t let Nolan & Goyer- or Snyder- near the Flash! I don’t want to see a dark, uber-realist take on one of the brightest, most colorful & most imaginitive heroes in all of comicdom & his Rogues. Flash needs to be character-driven but also light & fun, about a hero who doesn’t have complex motivations- who is a hero because it’s the right thing to do- whether it’s Barry or Wally. Flash fans want the fun of the character brought to the screen, not sucked out of it in favor of the grim & gritty approach WB takes with the big two, & thinks all their comic movies need to have for some reason. A Flash movie should be the anti-Dark Knight & Dark Knight Rises- focused on the main character & the supporting cast, but more light-hearted & fun. On another note, I want the print version of the Flash Re-Rebirth with Wally right now! XD

    Reply
  3. TheFlash1990

    I’d like a good Barry Allen trilogy, and I think it’d be awesome if done right……keep Goyer and Nolan as far away from it as possible.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.