“A lie has already walked the world before the truth has even put on its shoes”: this aphorism, which can somehow be read in the work of fantasy cult author Terry Pratchett, proves itself again today with a example of “The Flash” – and a supposedly planned appearance by Christian Bale, who starred as Batman in the famous “The Dark Knight” trilogy. We explain what’s behind it and how many major media outlets report that Bale would have dismissed those responsible for “The Flash”.
The whole thing goes back to an alleged statement by Kevin Smith back circulating on social media. According to the clip, the comics superfan and director of movies like Clerks and Dogma reportedly said: “They kept asking Christian Bale for months, hoping he would eventually give in, but he said no. So they changed their minds and said, ‘We’re looking for another Batman’.
However, this fragment is missing an important part, as Kevin Smith himself writes on Twitter: He starts his musings with the words “I think there is a world” and “It feels like it” and “I’m sure” which, however, is suppressed in the Twitter excerpt. Therefore it sounds like Smith has precognition. However, as he himself writes, this is not the case. These are just guesses:
However, as is so often the case, Smith is in a pretty lost position with his denialsbecause news of Christian Bale’s alleged cancellation naturally spread like wildfire on social media and through numerous articles (compare, for example, the retweets and likes under Smith’s tweet and one of the tweets containing the video clip).
Understandably, users on Twitter or TikTok didn’t bother checking Smith’s alleged statements. It is however Tellingly, even the many movie and media sites that have reported on it don’t listen to Kevin Smith’s full reflections on his live podcast “Fat Man Beyond.” You can find the full episode here, by the way, the accompanying passage starts at minute 44:51:
Perhaps it’s because Christian Bale’s alleged cancellation fits so well into The Flash’s narrative, which threatens to be a major debacle for Warner and DC: not only was the feature film recently found on Twitter, it also fell short of expectations and is a disastrous flop at the box office. A rejection from Bale would of course be the icing on the cake…