The following contains major spoilers for The Flash, now in theaters.
While his cameo at the end of The Flash may have come as a surprise to moviegoers, Batman & Robin star George Clooney's brief return to the role of Bruce Wayne wasn't something that was originally planned for the Fastest Man Alive's movie.
As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Clooney's cameo actually came together in a few weeks, being made in a half-day of filming and happening after phone calls were made and the film was screened twice. Additionally, the cameo was one of three endings that director Andy Muschietti had come up with for The Flash, with another conclusion to the movie having DC Extended Universe veteran Henry Cavill reprise his role as Superman. Prior to this, The Flash's ending was revealed to have been altered between screenings as part of a plan by Warner Bros. to "keep the 'secret ending' under wraps."
Of course, Clooney wasn't the only veteran Batman actor to appear in The Flash, as Ben Affleck also made a final appearance in it as his own Dark Knight. Regarding his last Batman outing, Affleck stated, "I loved the movie and it's really fun. It has a really good spirit of, kind of balance which is the tone is a difficult thing with these movies like trying to figure out how serious, how dark, how funny, how engaging it is. People have done it really well, have really struck a balance with that tone, and I feel like Andy really did that with this movie. It was a lot of fun, I really had a great time. [My time as Batman] was over too soon."
The Former Batman's Cameo Was Kept Secret From Ben Affleck
Interestingly, Affleck had said back in 2021 that he wasn't sure if Clooney was going to be in The Flash, saying when asked about it, "If [Clooney] is [in the film], he hasn't told me. I mean, it's possible -- he may be very guarded . . . I don't believe he's in The Flash, but I mean, I didn't even see Michael Keaton [on the set of The Flash], so maybe."
As for the actual Dark Knight himself, Batman will have his own movie in the upcoming DC Universe franchise called The Brave and the Bold, which was one of the projects announced for the DCU by DC Studios co-president and co-CEO James Gunn, with Andy Muschietti being its director. No casting information about the film has been made yet.
The Flash is now in theaters.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter