Black Adam has been a long time coming. Dwayne Johnson’s anti-hero is finally here and challenging the hierarchy of power in the DCEU, as the actor himself promised.
As reported by IGN here, Jaume Collet-Serra’s film had a pretty big opening weekend, grossing a total of $140 million in the worldwide box office.
In our 2-star review, we called Black Adam “a return to Snyder’s style of filmmaking” and a “missfire”.
SPOILERS FOR BLACK ADAM FOLLOWS!
Who shows up at the end of Black Adam?
Only a week or so before Black Adam’s premiere, footage was leaked from the film, notably a shaky camera recording of the mid-credits scene, revealing the return of Henry Cavill’s Superman.
Credit: Warner Bros.
Cavill has been missing from any DC action since 2017’s Justice League, unless you count Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, which premiered in 2020.
As detailed here by The Hollywood Reporter, the inclusion of the scene was a very last minute call. A complex relationship between Cavill’s team and former WB executive Toby Emmerich might have been one reason the Man of Steel has been so absent from recent DC films.
Shazam! included a Superman cameo but without Cavill, only the body of Superman (achieved through a body double) appears with no lines and no face.
It would now seem that Warner Bros are moving forward with a sequel to Man Of Steel and the ending of Black Adam hints that this isn’t the last that we’ve seen of Supes or Black Adam.
What happens in the Black Adam mid-credits scene?
At the end of the film, Amanda Waller threatens Black Adam with Superman if the Kahndaqi superhero doesn’t fall in line. Lo and behold, Superman then descends from the skies and tells Black Adam the two should talk. Something tells us Black Adam isn’t interested in talking, but maybe there’s an unlikely alliance in the cards for these two? Or will Black Adam fulfill his destiny in becoming DCEU’s biggest villain to date?
Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam. Credit: Warner Bros
It’s a scene that lasts barely minutes but it seems to set the course for future DCEU films. Firstly, Cavill is back as Superman, but as we noted in our review, it also feels like a return to Snyder’s version of the superhero universe. Black Adam is filled with classic Snyderisms, from religious iconography to abusing the use of slow-motion.
Gone are the experimental days of Birds of Prey and even the sequel to Shazam! looks like there’s going to be plenty more destruction than in the first one. The question is, with Superman back, where is this all going? It’s unlikely we’ll see another Justice League film, but hey, never say never. Snyder has already ruled out his involvement with DC directly so settle down, that’s not going to change.
In the comics, Black Adam is known primarily as an archnemesis for Shazam!, but he has clashed with Superman too. Could Johnson’s Black Adam make an appearance in Shazam!: Fury of the Gods?
With the Shazam! sequel scheduled for March 17, 2023 release, we won’t know for a few months still, but it’s safe to say Johnson’s Black Adam might be the DCEU’s new superbad in the making.
