DC’s latest movie Black Adam is out now in theaters, and according to star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, it heralds in a “new era” for the DCEU superhero franchise. Variety stated in their review that “the film’s whole purpose is to give Black Adam a suitably grand introduction on the assumption that he’ll be pitted against a more deserving adversary soon enough.” As it turns out, Black Adam teased that “more deserving adversary” right at the end of the movie, and it’s got a lot of people talking.
SPOILERS ahead for the Black Adam post-credits scene.
Producer explains how ended up appearing in Black Adam
Following the final showdown in Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson’s titular superhero ends up coming face to face with a projection of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who tells him not to shake things up on Earth too much. Waller is gradually becoming one of the DCEU’s connective tissue characters; she’s previously appeared in both Suicide Squad movies as well as Peacemaker. Though her appearance in Black Adam is brief, it sets up a much more prominent cameo.
As Black Adam destroys the drone projecting Amanda Waller’s image, a sonic boom sounds overhead. Then none other than Henry Cavill’s Superman floats down to confront Johnson’s antihero, ending the movie by declaring that they need to talk. It marks the first time that Cavill has appeared as the character since Justice League, so it’s a big deal.
Producers Hiram Garcia and Beau Flynn explain how this epic crossover cameo came about. “We knew we wanted to have a killer coda sequence in the film,” Flynn told Syfy Wire. “And when we were talking about the coda, we were like, well, the only way to really deliver that to the fans is if it’s Black Adam and Superman — it’s the granddaddy of them all. And so that set us on a two-year mission to make it happen.”
“It was a vision for many years,” added Garcia. “If we do this right, and we set up as someone who is going to come and adjust the hierarchy over there, you’d probably get the attention of the other most powerful person in that universe. We always had a dream that we would end the movie like this … it was a challenge to make happen, but we got there. It was definitely a highlight of our careers to pull it off.”
According to Garcia, the “regime changes” at Warner Bros. were one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when it came to the stinger. The Hollywood Reporter claims that DC Films head Walter Hamada was opposed to the idea of Cavill reprising the role, since he’d hoped to take Superman in a new direction. Ultimately, Johnson went around Hamada to get approval from higher ups at Warner Bros. and the cameo was shot in mid-September, scarcely a month before the movie’s release. Hamada stepped down as president of DC Films just this week after 15 years at the studio.
“When you’re trying to design a post-credit sequence like that, it has to really connect to the world, to the universe,” added Flynn. “Once the studio also really understood what the vision was there, then they really could finally get their arms around it and embrace it. And it’s exciting for all the places now as storytellers we can go in the DC Universe.”
“It was something that we all worked on so hard,” said Garcia. “I also want to just call out Dany Garcia, who’s also a producer on this , who has been working tirelessly on this with all of us. She works very closely with Henry and the way we all tagged teamed on this between Beau, Dany, Dwayne, and myself — it’s a moment that we’d like to pat ourselves on the back because it was hard to achieve and we’re really proud to have pulled it off and can’t wait for the fans to see it because we know the fans have been wanting it for ages.”
Garcia recalled what it was like to be on set and actually film the scene:
"When we flew over there to London, I was going to speak to Henry before the scene to talk about what’s going on in the movie. It was just a really special moment where he didn’t want me to come into the trailer yet. He’s like, ‘I just need a minute.’ And he goes, ‘All right —now I’m ready.’ And when I came in, he wanted to make sure that he was Superman. And he was in the costume and he was standing there and he just had this look on his face. We both did. We were like, we’re here. We were actually here. We were able to pull it off and he was so excited. And he went on that stage and he absolutely crushed it — he’s the Superman of our generation and to see him do that … Beau and I were texting each other and we were like ‘This is this is incredible!’ And he really did a fantastic job."
With Cavill’s Superman and Johnson’s Black Adam now officially crossing paths, it opens up the door for a potential showdown between the two heroes. It’s been no secret that the studio has struggled to link these films together like its rival Marvel. This could mark a turning point.
Black Adam is out now in theaters.
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