News breaks of surprise cameo as Warner Bros. drops final The Flash trailer

We have one last trailer for The Flash in advance of the film's release on June 16, 2023. Its release coincides with some spoiler-y casting news. Apparently director Andy Muschietti spilled the beans about a surprise cameo in the forthcoming film, according to Variety (huge spoiler at link)--much to the annoyance of some fans.

(Some spoilers below and one major reveal toward the end. We'll give you another heads up when we get there.)

As previously reported, earlier scripts focused on adapting the Flashpoint crossover storyline from the comic books, in which the Scarlet Speedster goes back in time to keep his mother from being murdered, thereby altering the entire timeline. In that alternate world, a young Bruce Wayne is killed rather than his parents. Thomas Wayne becomes Batman, Martha Wayne becomes the Joker, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are bitter enemies, and Superman is a prisoner. Muschietti kept several of the Flashpoint story elements while acknowledging that this would be a different version. And he wanted to include not just Michael Keaton's Batman but Ben Affleck's, too, since he thought Barry's relationship with the latter would make Keaton's inclusion even more powerful.

In addition to Miller, Affleck, and Keaton, the cast of The Flash includes Kiersey Clemons as journalist (and Barry's love interest) Iris West; Michael Shannon as General Zod, reprising his role from 2013's Man of Steel; Antje Traue reprising the role of Zod's second-in-command, Faora-Ul; Sasha Calle as Supergirl; and Maribel Verdu as Barry's mother, Nora Allen. Scheduling conflicts meant Billy Crudup couldn't return as Barry's father, Henry Allen, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife, so Ron Livingston stepped into the role. While Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman was also expected to appear, Affleck revealed to IndieWire last month that the scene was cut from the final film.

Warner Bros. released the first official trailer for The Flash during Super Bowl LVII, and Keaton's confirmed return as Batman (from the beloved Tim Burton era) pretty much set the Internet on fire. For many, Keaton was the definitive Batman for decades until The Dark Knight trilogy (with Christian Bale donning the cape) kicked off in 2005. So naturally, it was a thrill to see Keaton's and Affleck's Batman from the Zack Snyder era join forces to repair a timeline that was disastrously altered due to some pretty poor decision-making on the part of The Flash. The second trailer dropped last month at CinemaCon, giving fans another chance to geek out over Keaton's Batcycle, bulletproof cape, Batman using said cape as a parachute, and especially callback dialogue to the original Burton-directed movie ("You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts.").

The final trailer has a lot of the same footage with a few additional details here and there. It opens with a moment of levity, as Barry/The Flash awkwardly deals with a group of adoring fans on the street before speeding off to meet with Affleck's Bruce Wayne. We see Barry in the alternate timeline, having breakfast with his parents, cut short when his alternate self shows up on the front lawn. (One assumes they can't both be seen together because of the time-travel paradox something, something, something. Prime Barry actually tackles his alter ego.)

General Zod's forces attack ("This world must die"), Supergirl confronts the general in battle, Keaton's Batman does his thing, and we see the two Flashes sprinting in opposite directions--perhaps an attempt to restore the original timeline. Best moment: Barry gets to ride in the Batmobile, and when a passerby sees it and remarks that he has "fancy friends," he insists, "Yeah, it was an Uber... Exec."

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER BELOW!

What we don't see in the final trailer is the surprise cameo that Muschietti just revealed during an interview with Esquire Middle East. Some 25 years ago, Tim Burton had planned to make a film called Superman Lives, loosely based on "The Death of Superman" storyline from the comics, and starring none other than Nicolas Cage as Superman. (Yes, there are photos.) It was canceled three weeks before filming was about to begin--apparently for budgetary reasons--and the project was dropped, although there was a 2015 documentary about it.

Cage is a huge Superman fan and even named his son Kal-El. He told Variety that the Burton version would have been "a really different sort of emo Superman," sporting "samurai black long hair." Now he's finally getting the chance to play Superman in a brief cameo in The Flash, thanks to Muschietti and his fondness for all the past incarnations of the franchise. Hopefully it will be the long-haired kinda emo version we never got to see.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros