The Flash director cut Grant Gustin, Marlon Brando and more cameos

Grant Gustin nearly appeared in The Flash, but director Andy Muschietti cut him along with lots of other incredible cameos.

Warner Bros. didn’t even try to keep it a secret: Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in The Flash was confirmed years ago, even appearing in the first concept art released for the movie. Ben Affleck will also reprise his role, set to close the curtain on his time as the caped crusader.

The upcoming film will see Barry Allen travel back in time to save his mother’s life, in turn trapping himself in a dangerous alternate reality that breaks the universe and threatens the future.

We know we’ll see Ezra Miller’s speedster interact with another version of himself, but Gustin was originally set to make an appearance as well.

Grant Gustin and other cameos cut from The Flash

No spoilers here, of course, but early reports out of the CinemaCon screening suggested we’ll see a lot of cameos and surprises in The Flash, beyond who we already know.

However, despite seeming like the natural choice for a cameo, Gustin’s version of the hero won’t show up in the movie. “Of course, as I said before the list of cameos… was huge. So obviously we played with the idea of including DC characters from TV, but we just had to pick,” Muschietti said, as per Nerdist.

Miller memorably appeared in Arrow during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event in 2020. Gustin had been asked if he was going to pop up in the movie, and he said no – but after the No Way Home rumor mill and probing of Andrew Garfield, nobody believed him.

Other cameos were in the works during the film’s early development, including Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, Marlon Brando’s Jor-El from the original Superman movie, Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, and Cesar Romero’s Joker. Henry Cavill was also set to return as the Man of Steel, but his scene was scrapped after the Black Adam debacle.

The Flash hits cinemas on June 15 in the UK and June 16 in the US. Find out more about the movie here and check out the rest of our coverage here.