Spoiler Warning: The article contains major spoilers for The Flash.

The Flash movie ended with the return of a former DC superhero which surprised a lot of fans. But it was reportedly at the expense of Henry Cavill’s final appearance as Superman.

According to a new article by The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros secretly filmed the ending of The Flash just six months before the movie’s release, which, among other things, saw George Clooney make a surprise return as Bruce Wayne in The Flash after 26 years.

The final scene of the movie sees Barry Allen at the steps of the courthouse where he is on the phone with Bruce Wayne. Allen finally clears the name of his father and receives a call from Batman himself. Wayne pulls up in his Mercedes to greet Allen, but it isn’t Ben Affleck but Clooney, much to everyone’s surprise.

This is reportedly the third ending that was made for the film directed by Andy Muschietti. The multiple endings reflect how many times the leadership at Warner and DC has changed during the production of The Flash.

The film started out as a project under the supervision of Toby Emmerich and Walter Hamada. Most of the production was done under their watch. The original ending for The Flash was for Barry Allen to meet Supergirl (Sasha Calle) and Batman (Michael Keaton). The ending was supposed to reverse the death of Batman and Supergirl from earlier in the movie and signifies that The Flash didn’t manage to alter the timeline as he thought he did.

The movie was caught up in Discovery’s acquisition of Warner Bros in 2022. Hamada and Emmerich departed the company and Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were tasked with overseeing DC while Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav was searching for a permanent replacement.

De Luca and Abdy came up with a new ending for The Flash, one where Calle’s Supergirl is joined by the rest of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, including Henry Cavill’s Superman, and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. The ending was meant to tease audiences for a new Man of Steel movie and Wonder Woman 3, as well as tease the Crisis on Infinite Earths story arc that was part of a ten-year plan for DC that spanned multiple projects.

The initial goal was to use the film to help solidify that Cavill had returned as Superman to the DCEU after the Black Adam cameo with Patty Jenkins' third Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot helping with this.

The ending underwent another change as James Gunn and Peter Safran came on board as the new co-CEOs of DC Studios. The DC Extended Universe was effectively rebooted into what we now know as the DC Universe. The duo went on to push aside Man of Steel 2 and shelve Wonder Woman 3 indefinitely.

Gunn and Safran needed an ending that didn’t tease projects that they weren’t planning to make, which is why the ending with Clooney was created under much secrecy. The new ending implies that Miller’s Flash is stuck in another universe where Clooney is Batman, effectively ending his time as the Scarlet Speedster.

However, as part of a presumably long-term plan, this ending gives Gunn's DCU a chance to pull them back in the future as well, as the film established the existence of multiple universes.

DC Studios will now enjoy a fresh start with James Gunn revealing that Blue Beetle will be the first DC Universe character. Hopefully, DC irons everything out once the new slate of movies arrives starting with Superman: Legacy.