Multiverses are all the rage on the big screen these days, from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Everything Everywhere All at Once to Spider-Man movies No Way Home and Across the Spider-Verse. The Flash, DC's latest, centers on the idea of there being several realities, too – and that if time is tinkered with, it can have devastating consequences for the meddler's past, present and future.
Lifting the basis of its plot from Geoff Johns' Flashpoint comic book crossover, the Ezra Miller-led film sees Barry Allen run back in time to save his mother Nora (Maribel Verdú). His return doesn't quite go to plan, though, and he gets stuck in 2013... right before he got his powers and Superman took down General Zod.
When the murderous Kryptonian launches an attack on Earth, Barry soon realizes that the Man of Steel is nowhere to be seen. But what happened to him, and the rest of the Justice League for that matter? Below, we dive into that question, and fill you in on how Barry's antics affected the fates of Batman, Wonder Woman, and co...
As you might expect, things are going to get spoiler-heavy from here. So if you've yet to see The Flash and don't want to know any details, turn back now.
The Flash
The biggest change to Barry's existence after he messes with history is that, due to his mother not being killed, Barry doesn't pursue a career within the criminal justice system or land a job at the Central City Police Department. Subsequently, he would never have been in the forensics lab when a storm broke and the lightning hit, and he'd never have gotten his super speed.
Fortunately, Original Barry stumbles across Younger Barry and discovers that's the case before it's too late and the pair break into the CCPD, before purposefully getting themselves electrocuted and sparking their journey to becoming the Flash.
Batman
If you've watched any of The Flash's recent trailers, then you'll know Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne makes an appearance. Due to how quickly Barry resorts to tampering with the timeline to save his mother, however, his version of Batman isn't around for long.
Instead, the Batman that exists in Barry's new reality bears Michael Keaton's face, gave up vigilantism a long time ago – having turned Gotham into one of the safest cities to live – and perhaps more shockingly of all, wears flip-flops. Fans of the character – and well, anyone who's vaguely interested in movies – will know that isn't Keaton's first rodeo as the Caped Crusader, having played him in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns.
Both versions of Barry manage to convince this Bruce to throw on the suit one more time when Zod (Michael Shannon) threatens to destroy the world. With no Man of Steel, more on that later, to protect the planet, the Dark Knight and the Scarlet Speedster must band together to stop the homicidal Kryptonian.
Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg
There's no easy way to say this... in the alternate timeline Barry creates in The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, or Cyborg don't exist. Well, we don't see them at least...
Aquaman's fate is the most concrete among the trio. During one funny scene, Barry calls up Arthur Curry's father, Tom (Temuera Morrison), and asks to speak to his son. When Tom sounds confused, Barry mentions Queen Atlanna, Arthur's mother, and it turns out, Tom never met her. Ergo, half-Atlantean half-human Aquaman was never born. In fact, he named his dog Arthur instead. (Trust us, the sequence itself is funny in context, even the implications are quite dark. Sorry, Jason Momoa).
Elsewhere, it seems safe to assume that in Barry's new reality, high school quarterback Victor Stone, was never caught in the Father Box explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs, and subsequently never became Cyborg. That or, like Aquaman, he was never born in the first place.
Once Original Barry realizes that his going back in time has messed things up royally, so much so that Zod is "back" and looking to terraform Earth, he deduces that he's "created a world without metahumans". Upon meeting Supergirl (Sasha Calle), we accept that's not entirely true, so it could be that Wonder Woman just never left Themyscira back in the 1940s. In one scene, Barry googles "Diana Prince" and the only results he's met with are ones about the late Princess Diana, which suggests she either doesn't exist, or humans just don't know about her.
Superman
Alternate Superman's fate is undoubtedly the bleakest of all the Justice League members – yes, we'd argue even bleaker than never having existed at all...
You see, in The Flash, Kal-El is real, having been born on Krypton and shipped to Earth when the planet was destroyed by General Zod. In typical DC lore, Kal-El, who was a baby at the time, made it to Smallville, Kansas, and was raised by the Kent family as Clark before adopting his superhero title.
Elsewhere, across different variations of her backstory, his older cousin Kara either landed in a different part of Earth or came to the planet years later, having previously stuck behind to try and save what was left of it with her father Zor-El.
In the new movie, both youngsters were popped into pods, but not before Zor-El and Superman's scientist father Jor-El could hide a way to restart the Kryptonian race inside them. Well, one of them. The Flash's iteration of Zod learned this, intercepted infant Kal-El's rocket, and killed him in the process of looking for it. Due to the human military finding Kara and keeping her captive in an underground facility, though, he had not been able to track her down after Superman's murder proved to be a bust.
For more on The Flash, check out our spoiler-heavy deep dives on...
- Our deep dive on Iris West
- How different is The Flash to Flashpoint?
- How Superman Lives explains that wild cameo
- When does The Flash take place on the DCU timeline?
- Explaining the evil versions of The Flash
- What to watch before The Flash
- Everything you need to know about Supergirl
- The Flash Easter eggs and cameos
- The Flash post-credits scene, explained
- The Flash ending explained
- Every character that appears in The Flash multiverse sequence
- Our interview with The Flash filmmakers
