During The Flash's final act, Barry Allen travels through the Speed Force and sees some of the many other timelines and realities that exist across the DC Multiverse.
This leads to a number of cameo appearances, including Adam West's Batman, a generic Jay Garrick, and a resurrected Christopher Reeve as Superman. However, the biggest surprise comes when Nicolas Cage is shown fighting a giant spider as the Man of Tomorrow.
Hardcore DC fans will know the actor came close to playing Kal-El in Tim Burton's ill-fated Superman Lives, and it's undeniably fun to see Cage finally suit up. Unfortunately, as with the other cameos mentioned, CG is used that, quality-wise, is akin to a late 1990s/early 2000s blockbuster.
Talking to The Playlist, The Flash director Andy Muschietti confirmed Cage actually suited up and shot his scenes, making it all the more disappointing that what fans saw was akin to a video game cutscene.
"We talked with Nicolas, and we decided to shoot him in his suit," the filmmaker reveals. "And so, we built the suit with the same costume designer that built the suit for the unproduced ‘Superman Lives,’ which is a movie that would have been great, but nobody will see because it wasn’t made."
"But the excitement was shared with Nicolas, and Nicolas is such a kind guy, and I think he shared the enthusiasm for bringing back that movie that was never done – even for a couple minutes in our movie. And yeah, the magic of the Multiverse is expressing that this universe exists, even though it’s a movie that nobody saw. So, we’re kind of saying that there is a 'Superman Lives.'"
With any luck, some behind-the-scenes footage exists somewhere as it would be incredible to see what Cage looked like wearing the suit designed for Burton's movie.
Muschietti has claimed it was a stylistic decision to portray the Speed Force in the manner we saw on screen, but it's no secret many of the cameos were added through reshoots and that Warner Bros. had already spent enough on the movie by then.
Asked whether there were ever any concerns about people not understanding the Superman Lives reference, the director added, "Someone said, ‘What about the people that don’t know that Nicolas Cage [was going to be Superman]? Wouldn’t it be a funny moment to see Nicolas Cage out of nowhere dressed as Superman?'"
"And our answer was, 'We don’t care!'" That...explains a lot.
The Flash is now playing in theaters.