The following contains minor spoilers for Suicide Squad. Cease reading if you don't want to know.
Suicide Squad is the first film in the DC Extended Universe that was not directed by Zack Snyder. Except, of course, for the part that was. It turns out that the man behind Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't entirely hands-off the newest DC movie. In addition to acting as an executive producer, Snyder also directed one scene, the one where The Flash makes an appearance.
If you've already seen Suicide Squad, or don't care about spoilers, then you know that early in the film, right after we are first introduced to Captain Boomerang, we meet the guy who caught him, The Flash. While the film had never made any secret that Batman made an appearance, the fact that Flash was in it came out as a surprise. It was even a surprise to Jai Courtney, as he told our own Sean O'Connell that he didn't know The Flash was in the movie at all. Now, Collider has helped to reveal why it was such a surprise. Director David Ayer told them that since Zack Snyder was already in London directing Justice League with Ezra Miller, he just had them film the scene with the Flash, and Snyder was the one behind the camera.
It's an interesting, and incredibly useful, aspect of "cinematic universe" filmmaking that we hadn't necessarily considered previously. One movie is in post-production and needs a specific shot, while another movie is currently in the middle of principal photography. They have the actor you need, the costume, a set, and a full crew. Why would you fly the guy half way around the world to get the shot yourself, when you can just have them do it for you? It's a beautiful demonstration of teamwork within the DCEU. Marvel has done similar things themselves within their universe, The post-credits sequence used in Ant-Man came directly from the filming of Captain America: Civil War, but what DC has done here takes that to a new level. Whatever faults DC's films may have, they do seem to have a handle on the production side of things. Also, it saves money for Warner Bros. which we're sure the studio appreciates.
If Suicide Squad had just left well enough alone, and not released one final trailer the week before the movie came out, the early appearance by Ezra Miller as The Flash likely would have stayed hidden. However, the flash of lightning that we saw knock Captain Boomerang on his ass led many to suspect the cameo might be there. Eventually, when the official credits of the film were released, The Flash cameo was confirmed.
Did you make it all the way to seeing The Flash without being spoiled? Let us know what you thought of the cameo in the comments below.
