Black Adam S Major Cameo Was Almost Just A Tease With A Stand In

Spoiler Alert: This story contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Black Adam

The new movie Black Adam has arrived, finally marking Dwayne Johnson’s entrance in the DCEU. Because the film has spent many years in development, it was a passion project for Johnson with great effort put in to make Black Adam as satisfying a watch as possible for the fans who’ve been waiting. While critics’ reviews are mixed, the film has largely been enjoyed by filmgoers who’ve been coming out en massed to see Black Adam, ranking at 89% with its audience score at Rotten Tomatoes.

One big move The Rock pulled off was orchestrating the return of Henry Cavill as Superman. While this was something many fans have been demanding for years, Johnson has said how the previous leadership at Warner Bros. was against the idea. Things changed after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, opening the door for Cavill to be added into the film with reshoots. Per THR, cinematographer Lawrence Sher opened up on how the filmmakers pulled off the big cameo, and because there was doubt over Cavill returning, they initially shot the scene featuring Johnson’s Black Adam with the hope that Cavill could be added in later.

“If we can get Henry to be in it, then we’ll figure that out on a future date,” Sher said.

Cavill’s involvement was not yet confirmed on the final day of principal photography for Black Adam. This resulted in Johnson filming the scene with a stand-in, and much like what happened with the Superman cameo in Shazam!, it never actually shows the Man of Steel’s face. This may have been what appeared in the movie if Cavill was ultimately unable to return for the cameo, though the hope from everyone involved is that the real Man of Steel would appear. Sher also revealed that even without Superman’s face, the scene did very well at test screenings, and they imagined how much more special it would be if they could really get Cavill to show up.

“Watching an actor come out of a full silhouette into that, was actually goosebumps. ‘Wow, this is 100 percent going to work. Now they need to figure out if they can get the guy with the head to be there," Sher said.

Does Henry Cavill Return in Black Adam?

     Warner Bros.  

Once it was approved that Cavill could return as Superman, director Juame Collett-Serra ordered a secret reshoot to be made to make it happen. At the time, Cavill was in London, so he filmed his scene there to keep things under the radar. Putting Cavill into the film is also for the best, as doing another Shazam!-style tease may feel cheap for many filmgoers at this point after getting spoiled by all of the multiverse surprises from Marvel’s movies over the past year.

Black Adam is now playing in movie theaters.