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While Andy Muschietti's The Flash didn't serve as the reboot of the DCU many thought it would, Zack Snyder's original vision would have.
Storyboard artist Jay Oliva was originally involved with The Flash film for the DCU (then DCEU). “I worked with Seth Grahame-Smith, the first director who was attached to The Flash,” Oliva told Inverse. “I did a storyboard for him. I did that test. I don't think I ever saw it, but it got the green light for the movie.”
He remained attached to the project with Rick Famuyiwa as they awaited a new director.
“I worked with Rick for like six or seven months on that Flash movie, right up until Rick left [in October 2017],” he said. “The cast was in London. They were building sets. When Rick left, I switched gears and did the reshoots for the ending of Wonder Woman.”
However, unlike the Flash film that we got, Smith's wasn't going to adapt the Flashpoint storyline. “Rick's movie wasn't the Flashpoint movie,” Oliva revealed. “Originally, there was supposed to be just Zack's five films and one side movie, which ended up being Suicide Squad (2016).”
He continued, “Rick's movie was going to be a series of films, just like Aquaman. I think all of those films, they were planning to be trilogies.”
The Flash films would have introduced a major big bad from the comics: Eobard Thawne (Reverse-Flash).
“Rick's movie was laying the groundwork for Zoom as the big baddy of the DC Universe,” he revealed. “It was Professor Zoom pulling the strings because he had come from the future to basically f**k with Barry. In the Flash movies, Zoom would be the villain in the background. But also in the ancillary other films, you would see some of the influences of Zoom on the rest of the Justice League.”
Zack Snyder's Flashpoint would have then resulted in a reboot point for the DCU. “At the ending of Zack's Darkseid quadrilogy, or whatever, we would end up with a Justice League Unlimited version of the Snyder-verse,” Oliva said. “And then you flip it. You do Flashpoint Paradox. Everybody who's friends are now enemies, and it's a world that you don't want to live in. You can reboot the universe and introduce a new cast that way. Because after 10 years, the actors need to go onto something else.”
But we never got that, and Oliva talked about why he was excited by a Flashpoint film. “I wanted to really capture the grimness of the comic, but also lay the groundwork for adapting this as if it was a Marvel live-action film,” he said of the 2013 animated Flashpoint film. “I just thought that would've been fantastic. Can you imagine Jason Momoa fighting Gal Gadot and then having that love story?”
Reflecting on being along for the ride of the DCU collapse, Oliva said, “All of the missed opportunities — being a part of it was so exciting, and then having to shift gears and pivot. It's kind of sad. I would've loved to have seen it get to this point.”
The Flash film that we got teamed Ezra Miller's Barry Allen with an elder Batman (Michael Keaton) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle).