The second trailer for The Flash begins and ends, not with Barry Allen, the star of the film, but Batman. Much like the first trailer, the newest look at the much-delayed DC film is heavy on all of the people that will be accompanying The Flash on his multiversal journey, with a heavy focus on Michael Keaton’s return as Batman
It’s a decision that’s likely strategic on multiple levels. It makes star Ezra Miller, who has had numerous allegations of troubling and violent behavior levied against them (Miller is non-binary), secondary in the hype campaign. It also lures in the nostalgia-curious, because hey: that is Michael Keaton, and it sure seems like his version of the Caped Crusader from 1989’s Batman sure will play a huge part of the film!
The trailer doesn’t reveal a whole lot that we didn’t already know at this point: Barry (Ezra Miller), discovers he can travel the multiverse and tries to save a version of his late mother in a universe where she is still alive. In doing so, he breaks things on a cosmic level, and has to team up with another version of himself, Michael Keaton’s Batman, Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and Ben Affleck’s Batman to stop General Zod (Michael Shannon) from Man of Steel.
If you watch closely, you’ll note all sorts of details in the new footage, like the classic blue-and-grey bat-suit among many in the Batcave, but mostly the trailer is here to go big and bright and colorful bombast, as The Flash attempts to bring one era of DC movies to an end by celebrating all of them.
The Flash will premiere in theaters on June 16.