The Flash is arriving a week earlier than originally planned. Warner Bros. has moved up the release date for its upcoming DC Comics movie from the previously slated June 23 to June 16, 2023. This gives the Ezra Miller-led film some breathing room, before the Disney-owned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits theatres, later that month, on June 30. The Flash has been the subject of controversies — cycling through several directors and Miller’s continued run-ins with legal trouble. Andy Muschietti, who rose to prominence through the killer clown It films, directs The Flash, from a screenplay written by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey).
Miller’s lack of cooperation with the studio urged Warner Bros. to conjure up three release scenarios, where the worst case saw the $200 million (about Rs. 1,645 crore) The Flash being completely scrapped. The lead actor apologised later in the week, breaking the silence on his troubling behaviour, which led to a series of public assaults and charges pinned against him. “Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment,” Miller told Variety, at the time. “I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behaviour.”
The actor had been attached to The Flash movie since being cast in 2014 for Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He later reprised his role of Barry Allen in Justice League, and has been a central figure in the larger DC Extended Universe (DCEU), with Warner Bros. planning to re-configure their messy universe, by adapting The Flashpoint Paradox storyline. For the uninitiated, in the arc, Allen travelled back in time — as seen at the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League — to prevent his mother’s death, creating oddities within his timeline. This allowed him to meet up with an alternate, brutal version of Batman, where the cowl was donned by father Thomas Wayne, instead of Bruce Wayne.
While plot details on the upcoming The Flash movie aren’t that clear, we know that both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck will be reprising their roles as Batman. Sasha Calle also appears as Super Girl in the film, as revealed in a DC FanDome presentation from last year. For now, it is unclear as to what direction the DC Universe would move following The Flash’s release. But, newly-appointed DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran have been conjuring a plan to connect all DC Comics films, series, and animation projects. Last month, The Suicide Squad filmmaker dropped a teaser for Mister Terrific, which could potentially be the next big project at the studio.
The Flash is now slated to release June 16, 2023, in theatres worldwide.