The Flash had its early premiere at CinemaCon this year, and the film’s director Andrés Muschietti revealed that there was more to this film compared to its official release. It turns out, The Flash also had its own Snyder cut-style longer duration before it became the version that will be released in theaters.
During a Q&A event for The Flash, Muschietti revealed that the first cut for the upcoming DC film had four hours of footage. According to Entertainment Weekly, the director shared that The Flash underwent multiple cuts before the final product was released. It was revealed during the Q&A panel that after the initial 4-hour assembly, the film received a 3.5 hours and 5-hour cut. The director spoke about the process when it came to editing the film and how fun and chaotic it was before the final product came out.
“Then you have to face the edit and say, ‘Okay, we need to remove one-and-a-half [hours] of this movie, and how is it gonna happen?’ At the end of six months, it’s fun. At the beginning, it’s just chaos. And whatever you start doing is wrong because it’s trial and error, and you try a lot of things.”
Muschietti says that he’s happy with the current version. He explained that making cuts happen all the time and how there would be scenes that “doubled in duration” despite it being timed correctly with the script. When asked about a potential 4-hour extended release, Muschietti teased that the 4-hour director’s cut may see the light of day with a simple response — “maybe.”
“I’m definitely more happy with this version than the four-hour version. You get excited and you start improvising with actors, and suddenly you have a scene that has doubled the duration that was timed when they were timing the script. But it happens all the time.”
Early reviews of The Flash claimed that this DC film is the “best superhero movie” to date after the film premiered at CinemaCon. Viewers were impressed with the Easter eggs the film had, as well as the performance the actors did throughout the movie. The Flash will make its way into theaters on June 15, 2023.