The Flash's 'Superman Lives' Nod Brings Kevin Smith Delightfully 'Weird Closure'
Contains spoilers for "The Flash"
The final act of "The Flash" might've upset some fans with wild CGI cameos, but for one audience member, the film's surprises hit a nostalgic nerve harder than most. In between glimpses of a Golden Era speedster and a CGI Christopher Reeve returning as Superman alongside Helen Slater's Supergirl, Nicolas Cage hovered into view with hair worthy of a shampoo commercial, tussling with a giant spider. For Kevin Smith, it was an encounter three decades in the making.
The story of Smith and his lengthy battle to write a script for Tim Burton's "Superman Lives," a project that almost had Cage in the starring role, stands as a historical moment in Kal-El's big screen odyssey. The script included sequences with Brainiac fighting polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude and the Last Son of Krypton taking on a colossal spider. Though the movie didn't materialize, the outlandish spider fight was eventually brought to life, albeit momentarily, under the direction of "The Flash" helmer Andy Muschietti, and Kevin Smith couldn't be happier.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Smith said, "I have spent the better part of 30 years of my career referencing the movies, and now I've lived long enough where the movies are starting to reference me back." To the director behind the "Clerks" trilogy, "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma," this moment stands alone. "What I think about it is, you know, in a weird way, even though I've been making films for 30 years, and I got my own career, I feel like, 'Oh, I finally made it.'"
Kevin Smith's mind-melting experience with that cameo
Understandably, with "The Flash" featuring such a moment, Kevin Smith admitted to already planning a rewatch. What's bittersweet is that even after the development hell he went through in writing his Superman story and the toil of pitching it to producer Jon Peters, seeing a final snippet teased what could've been. "I'm watching it again Friday and Saturday at the movie theater with audiences," he said. "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."
Strangely, in another timeline where Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) picked up a tin of beans, the Superman in Smith's film may have been someone totally different. Initially, Peters wanted Sean Penn, who, according to the producer, had the eyes of a "violent animal. A caged killer." Smith swayed the "Superman Lives" team in a different direction. "I was like, 'Nic Cage loves Superman. He talks about knowing the comics real well. You guys should go after Nic Cage,'" he recalled. It was a choice that paid off, which shocked Smith even then. "I was like, wow, I had an idea, and somebody took it seriously. So there's some sense of weird closure to everything In seeing that moment in 'The Flash.'" The rest, as they say, is comic book movie history and now something Smith couldn't be happier with. "It has been an absolute delight for me."