UPDATE: James Gunn has responded to the Matthew Lillard Flash speculation. Read his answer here.
James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow keeps adding DC characters, and the two newest names fit what CBN insiders have said about the Superman sequel.
Those sources say Gunn is loading the movie with cameos, including Adria Arjona playing Wonder Woman, a role DC still hasn’t officially named.
Now Viola Davis is said to be returning as Amanda Waller, and new details about Matthew Lillard’s mystery character have fans convinced he is playing The Flash.
Viola Davis Reportedly Returns As Amanda Waller
Scooper Daniel Richtman reported September 28 that Davis will be back as Waller in Man of Tomorrow.
Richtman credited the Atlanta set account AtlantaDCFans along with “juan,” the same account behind last week’s claim that Superman wears multiple suits in the sequel, including a space suit.
Davis has played Waller since 2016’s Suicide Squad, returning in The Suicide Squad and in cameos in Peacemaker and Black Adam. She also voices the character in Creature Commandos.
Her live-action Waller series was announced for HBO Max back in January 2023 and never made it in front of cameras, with Gunn admitting other projects moved faster.
A Man of Tomorrow appearance puts Davis back on the big screen without waiting on the show. It would be her first live-action role in the new DCU.
Is Matthew Lillard Playing The Flash?
The Waller claim traces back to AtlantaDCFans, and the same account posted new details on Lillard’s character on September 29.
Per the account, Lillard’s character will have a biracial family and shares scenes with Jimmy Olsen, Cat Grant and Perry White. A follow-up added that he has two children between the ages of 7 and 11.
That means Daily Planet scenes with Skyler Gisondo, Mikaela Hoover and Wendell Pierce.
Fans connected the dots fast: Lillard is Barry Allen, the wife is Iris West-Allen, and the two kids are twins Don and Dawn.
In the comics, Don and Dawn Allen are Barry and Iris’s twins, known as the Tornado Twins. The biracial family detail fits Iris, who was played by Candice Patton on The CW’s The Flash and Kiersey Clemons in the DCEU movies.
Lillard joined the sequel in May with his role kept under wraps. He goes back decades with Gunn, who wrote the two Scooby-Doo movies Lillard starred in as Shaggy.
There is no Flash movie or series on DC Studios’ slate, and Gunn laughed off the Grant Gustin return rumor earlier this month.
An older Barry with a family, introduced in a cameo, gets the character into the DCU without committing to any of that.
The Cameo List Keeps Growing
Back on August 6, we reported Man of Tomorrow has been filling up with cameo deals, the one kind of casting the Paramount merger doesn’t complicate.
Our sources also said the Batman role Gunn offered Alan Ritchson was a single cameo in this movie, and Ritchson said no.
And in June, we exclusively reported Arjona is playing Wonder Woman, with insiders adding in August that the part is more of a cameo.
Gunn played all of this down on Threads in September, posting “It’s movie about Lex and Clark” and telling fans not to expect substantial amounts of other characters.
A Waller scene and a Flash introduction are not substantial roles. They are cameos, which is exactly what the insiders described.
Filming wrapped on August 26, so if these parts are real, they are already in the movie.
Man of Tomorrow opens in theaters on July 9, 2027. Everything we know about the film is here.
