The Flash’s Twisted Villain Has Been Revealed
Merchandise for the upcoming The Flash movie reveals it will star the Dark Flash.
We’ve known for a while that the upcoming DC film The Flash would be based on the timeline-altering comic event Flashpoint. This event had previously been adapted both in the CW Arrowverse and as a direct-to-video animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, both of which featured Eobard Thawne (aka Reverse Flash/Professor Zoom) as the main villain. However, the upcoming The Flash film appears to be taking a different route, as a leaked series of toys based on the film do not show Thawne, but rather the somewhat-related villain “Dark Flash.”
The villain, who was revealed through a leaked image of film-based toys, is an alternate universe version of the hero Wally West, named Walter West. In the comics, Dark Flash comes from a universe where the Flash failed to save his girlfriend Linda Park.
Assuming that the leaked list of toys is complete, this means that Eobard Thawne won’t be appearing in The Flash, despite him being the main villain in all other adaptations of Flashpoint. Thawne is responsible for kickstarting the entire Flashpoint event by going back in time and killing Barry Allen’s mother during his childhood. The resulting time travel shenanigans resulted in the entire DC comics universe being rebooted (something that the DC universe has a habit of doing).
Without the presence of Thawne, it remains to be seen exactly what events set off the time-traveling, universe-altering plot in The Flash. Since the toys involve a young Wally West, we can assume it involves multiple versions of the Flash interacting with each other, which does fall in line with the original comics’ plot.
The toy line also includes Batman, which seems to confirm that Michael Keaton will be appearing in The Flash. However, with all the shakeups to the DC universe that have happened since Discovery took over the company, who knows what’s actually happening at this point.
Regardless, it’s almost certain that The Flash will kickstart some form of reboot of the DC films. This works out nicely for James Gunn, who seems to be in charge of some major changes to the DC franchise, including firing Henry Cavill, booting The Rock, and doing… something to the Wonder Woman franchise.
While the release of the toy line offers some insight into the plot of The Flash, there’s only so much information that can be gleaned from a leaked photo of some molded plastic figures. Until then, the future of the entire DC Universe seems to be in flux. It’s almost as though someone has gone back in time and is mucking around with history or something.
The Flash will release on June 16, 2023. It will star Ezra Miller (despite the fact that Ezra Miller seems to be surrounded by assault and burglary allegations). We probably will have to wait until after the film releases to discover whether Miller will continue to perform as The Flash, whether James Gunn can successfully transform the DC Universe, or whether the entire franchise will continue to result in unreleased films that exist only to relieve Warner Bros. Discovery’s tax burdens.
