A DCEU theory suggests Zack Snyder’s entire DC universe was saved off-screen by a minor character as early as in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Zack Snyder launched the DC Extended Universe with Man of Steel, which led to two other movies that followed Zack Snyder’s plans for the DCEU, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The franchise soon evolved past Snyder’s original plans, moving away from the canceled Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 sequels and instead spawning spinoffs like Wonder Woman and Aquaman, as well as other projects like Shazam! and Blue Beetle.
Zack Snyder has unveiled his original plans for the franchise since his departure from the DCEU. Zack Snyder’s Justice League sequel storyboards show that the world’s heroes fail to stop Darkseid and enter a new Knightmare timeline slightly different from the one Batman foresaw. This time, Batman and Cyborg help Flash go back in time and help Batman prevent Superman from succumbing to Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation, thus erasing the Knightmare future. In the end, none of these events happened, and the DCEU took a drastically different direction, with no Darkseid in sight and all heroes facing different fates on their own after Justice League.
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In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a future version of Barry Allen travels back in time to warn Bruce Wayne about Superman’s corruption by Darkseid. This appears to be a literal nightmare dreamed up by Batman due to his fear of Superman, but it would have been proven true by Zack Snyder’s Justice League sequels. However, Zack Snyder’s Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 were canceled, and the DCEU distanced itself from Snyder’s original plans. In the end, the Knightmare timeline never happened despite Knightmare Flash’s cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
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The fact that the Knightmare timeline never took place in the DCEU suggests that Knightmare Flash’s trip to the present day worked. This Flash thinks he arrived “too early” for Batman to understand who Flash was and what he was referring to, but he may actually have diverted his own dystopian timeline without the need of Batman’s direct influence. Instead of planting the seeds of time travel in Batman’s mind, as Zack Snyder’s Justice League sequels would have revealed, Knightmare Flash’s warning may have caused some subtle changes that undid the Knightmare future altogether.
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Whatever changes Knightmare Flash caused in the DCEU, the Knightmare timeline never arrived. Darkseid never conquered Earth, Amy Adams’ Lois Lane never died and thus Henry Cavill’s Superman never gave up his free will to the Anti-Life Equation. Batman also didn’t have to sacrifice his life to save Lois Lane, and Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen never had to rely on a Motherbox-powered Cosmic Treadmill in order to travel back in time. After Knightmare Flash traveled back in time to warn Batman about his own post-apocalyptic future, the DCEU thrived, and all heroes were able to live longer lives.
Present-day Barry Allen realizes that he doomed the whole universe anyway
After the events of Justice League, Prime Barry Allen improves his gear and trains his Speed Force powers past his Knightmare counterpart’s limitations. Barry discovers his ability to travel back in time by tapping into the Speed Force, which inspires him to change the past. In The Flash, present-day Barry Allen ends up turning the whole DCEU upside down, and in order to save it from total collapse, he has to undo his first trip. Unfortunately, present-day Barry Allen realizes that he doomed the whole universe anyway, as The Flash‘s final scene reveals that Ben Affleck’s Batman was replaced by George Clooney’s.
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The Knightmare timeline’s absence in the DCEU’s present day makes the time-traveling Knightmare Flash look like a universe-saving martyr in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, while present-day Barry Allen’s careless handling of the Speed Force makes him look like the DCEU’s worst hero in The Flash. Paradoxically, present-day Barry Allen’s terrible time travel mistakes in The Flash might also be a direct consequence of Knightmare Flash’s universe-saving warning from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. After all, everything that came after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice could be seen as the result of Knightmare Flash’s trip to the past.
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Knightmare Flash may have saved the timeline in BvS, replacing himself with the Flash who doomed the timeline in The Flash. Clearly, this was never planned, neither by Zack Snyder nor by Warner Bros., as The Flash went through many changes before it became the movie that hit theaters in 2023. Nevertheless, Barry Allen’s universe-saving and universe-dooming actions in the DCEU are exactly the kind of paradoxical time travel stories the Flash is known for in the source material. In the comics, animated shows, animated movies, and the Arrowverse, Flash constantly creates the very problems he wants to solve.
The Flash‘s early drafts were also scrapped, and The Flash‘s cataclysmic plot became Barry Allen’s fault
In DC Comics’ Flashpoint, Reverse Flash kills Barry Allen’s mother, leading Barry to go back in time and try to save her, but he’s destined to fail, as his mother’s death is what allows him to go back in time in the first place. Likewise, Reverse Flash becomes obsessed with Flash in the future, meaning that Reverse Flash cannot kill Flash without erasing himself out of existence. Zack Snyder’s DCEU could have featured Professor Zoom in a similar capacity to Flashpoint‘s Reverse Flash. However, The Flash‘s early drafts were also scrapped, and The Flash‘s cataclysmic plot became Barry Allen’s fault.
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The DCEU’s Greatest Hero May Have Been A Cameo Character
Taking Knightmare Flash’s successful warning in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as fact, Barry Allen’s future self could claim the title of most heroic and successful hero in the DCEU, as he saved the universe from the original Knightmare future, as well as from the events of Zack Snyder’s Justice League 2 and Justice League 3. The only other time Knightmare Flash appeared is in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which isn’t official DCEU canon. Still, Knightmare Flash is nothing but a cameo character in both of his DCEU appearances.
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Time travel stories usually follow the time traveler in his quest to change the flow of time. Barry Allen is famous for his time travel adventures, and events as big as DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths are defined by the Flash’s time travel abilities, which often allow him to rewrite the whole multiverse. Knightmare Flash, on the other hand, saves the whole DCEU as a cameo character. Albeit accidentally, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice presents a time travel story from an unusual perspective: from the eyes of the timeline saved by a hero who sacrifices his own existence to prevent his own future from happening.
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
