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'Black Adam' producers reveal how they pulled off that epic post-credit scene
Getting you-know-who to appear in Black Adam was no easy feat.
If you’re familiar with Black Adam from the comics, you know that he’s got his own view of justice, and that view often includes killing a lot of people. Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam movie certainly stays true to the comics, and has it has Johnson murdering more than a few people as the DC character. The movie also has lighter moments, however, and that balance in tone was something that producers Hiram Garcia and Beau Flynn strove for in the final cut of the film.
“We’ve always known that Black Adam is a very edgy character with a lot of darkness because of what’s happened to him in his past,” Garcia told SYFY WIRE in an interview with him and Flynn. “We wanted to honor that make sure we brought that edge and and grip to the movie, but it’s still a comic book movie and you still want to have fun … those little moments levity go a long way for us and it felt like it just gave the movie that much more energy and breadth for the fans.”
One thing that will certainly make many a fan excited is the cameo in the post-credit sequence. Johnson has already teased who this cameo will be, but making it happen was something that took a lot of effort for everyone involved.
Read on to hear the details about how long it took to get that cameo confirmed and how the actor in question felt on the big day of shooting. And be warned! Spoilers for Black Adam’s post-credit scene lie ahead.
In the post-credit scene of Black Adam, Johnson finds himself standing face-to-face with none other than Henry Cavill as Superman, and they’re not loving each other.
“We knew we wanted to have a killer coda sequence in the film,” explained Flynn. “And when we were talking about the coda, were 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 [Black Adam] 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.”
Garcia referenced the many “regime changes” over at Warner Bros. (now Warner Bros. Discovery) as contributing to the challenge.
“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.”
The road to get to that final sequence, however, wasn’t easy. “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 [and Henry Cavill’s manager], 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.”
Cavill filmed his part of the sequence in London and was equally excited to play Superman once again. “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,” said Garcia. “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.”
And where does the DC Universe go from here? With Cavill and Johnson teed up to ruffle each other’s feathers, the producers think things could get darker and bigger.
“If you look at Batman or Superman’s early movies — the Dick Donner and Tim Burton movies — they also had to start somewhere,” said Flynn, referring to the lighter tone of those films. “And now if you look at where Matt Reeves took it — the movies build eventually over time and can get darker and darker because people know the characters and you can explore new nooks and crannies that you couldn't before … and then from there, I believe we can go and explore and go to darker places with Black Adam and the rest of the Justice Society and the other characters that we fold in.”
You can see Cavill don the cape again in Black Adam, now in theaters.
Looking for more superhero action? Stream Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, and more on Peacock right now.
