As you are aware now, Superman appeared in Black Adam. The scene played well for hardcore fans and became quite the moment on social media. Now, the cinematographer of the film is claiming we almost got a very different scene without Henry Cavill and Dwayne Johnson facing off.
Cinematographer Lawrence Sher spoke to THR’s Behind the Screen podcast, explaining the situation and how filming happened for the now infamous post-credit scene. Sher claims the negotiations to bring back Cavill came down to the wire, and production got the scene pre-shot without knowing if Cavill would return.
Sher says director Jaume Collet-Serra broke the idea late, saying to Sher, “Let’s just quickly take this throne room set that we were working in… We’re going to create something for Dwayne to walk into… And we’re going to shoot it in like 10 minutes.”
Johnson’s half was filmed as the final shot on the last day of additional photography. With that completed, Shar says the Superman side of the scene was done with a body double and a version of John Williams’ 1978 Superman theme found on Google.
During this, Shar claims, “watching an actor come out of a full silhouette into that was actually goosebumps. ‘Wow, this is 100% going to work. Now they need to figure out if they can get the guy with the head to be there.'”
The headless Superman scene filmed is similar to what they did with the first Shazam post-credit scene, so they took Black Adam to test screenings. Shar claims the reaction led to the need to secure Cavill: “I went to a test screening … in which they did the version without his head … and it played gangbusters. Then it was like, ‘Now we got to get Henry.'”
Sher was involved in the very last-minute filming of the Cavill portion, working remotely as they shot the scene. He says that even watching through monitors; he knew this was a big moment for the DCEU. “There are certain people that are iconic as the characters that they play, and he’s really one of them,” says Sher.
SEE ALSO: Dwayne Johnson says the whole point of the Black Adam movie is for eventual Superman face-off
The Superman scene and some positive word-of-mouth from hardcore DCEU fans helped lead Black Adam to a respectable $67 million at the U.S. box office and $140 million worldwide this weekend. Read our review here.
Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the ancient gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam (Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.
Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise) and sees Dwayne Johnson starring alongside Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna, Marwan Kenzari as Ishmael, Bodhi Sabongui as Amon, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and Henry Cavill as Superman.
Black Adam is in cinemas now.
