The following post contains SPOILERS for the ending of The Flash, along with a big cameo from a certain man of steel.
For those who don’t know, Kevin Smith is a bit of a comic book nerd. So much so that he was tapped to write the screenplay for a Superman movie in the mid ’90s. The only issue was a producer named Jon Peters. Peters had some… interesting ideas about how a Superman movie should pan out.
He initially wanted Sean Penn to play the Man of Steel. Okay, that’s reasonable enough. But he also wanted the movie to end with this Superman fighting a giant spider. Tim Burton was brought onboard to direct the project, which became known as Superman Lives. and Smith was supposed to get his wish. Burton cast Nicolas Cage as Superman. The only problem was that the budget was around $200 million at this point. The studio eventually decided to scrap the whole project. Superman Lives never saw the light of day.
READ MORE: Our Full Recap of the Entire DC Extended Universe So Far
That is until, the end of 2023’s The Flash. That whole giant spider climax? It happens at the end of the movie when Ezra Miller’s Flash witnesses the collapse of the multiverse. Complete with Nicolas Cage as Superman. Kevin Smith recently sat down with Rolling Stone to nerd out about how cool it was — and to reveal that while he fought with Peters about the giant spider idea, he now realized it might have actually made for a cool ending to the movie.
As Smith put it:
I got to go to the premiere the other day, and then I watched it again last night here at the movie theater I own, SModcastle Cinemas. I’m watching it again Friday and Saturday at the movie theater with audiences. It’s mind-melting. One of the first things I thought when I saw it at the premiere is, ‘Goddammit, it would have worked.’ As much as I used to make fun of Jon Peters, that looked badass. He wasn’t wrong. Like, it totally could have panned out.
The Flash is playing now in theaters everwhere.
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