Dwayne Johnson’s debut as Black Adam in the DC Universe has been quite enticing for fans, while Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan are getting high applause for their respective performances. But, the scene that sent theaters into a frenzy was the last-minute cameo of Henry Cavill returning as Superman.

In Black Adam, at the film’s end, Amanda Waller advises Adam to stay in Kahndaq, or she shall send someone outside of Earth to stop him should he leave. And right after, Superman arrives, telling Black Adam they need to talk. The post-credits scene meant a lot to fans and opened several possibilities for the newly renamed DC Universe. However, Henry Cavill’s sequence was not mentioned to the team during the film’s production. It turns out there were several versions of that scene, with one including a body double, similar to Superman’s cameo in Shazam!.
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Talking to Screen Rant, Black Adam editor Mike Sale, ACE, explained how the scene came late into the editing room during the production process. Expressing his disappointment about the scene getting leaked, Sale said,

That did come in very late, in terms of getting the shot. We didn’t really want it to exist early on, even though I think it was going to be in the movie the whole time. I’ve got to tell you, one day I was in the cutting room, and the footage came in, and I’m like, “What the hell is this?” That was a very, very secret thing. I’m really bummed that people leaked it, but you can’t control it. It’s just going to happen.

Sale added that the scene was shot several times before the final cut. While some sequences showed Henry, others featured a body double or a silhouette. Even the editors weren’t aware of what the final shot would look like until the last minute.

We had many, many versions of it. Some of them showed everything. Some of them were just shadows. There were many versions. Really, right until the last minute, we didn’t know exactly what it was going to be. That was one of the things we worked on up until the end.

After the cameo went public, Henry Cavill shared a video with his fans, confirming his return to the DC Universe. The actor promised that the cameo was just the beginning which would turn into bigger surprises and treats for DC fans. And Mike Sale was utterly happy about it.

Related: Black Adam’s Dwayne Johnson Reportedly Doesn’t Like Shazam Franchise

Black Adam Editor, Mike Sale was Fanboying Over Superman’s Return

Warner Bros. Pictures

In the same interview, Mike Sale revealed that he was one of the people who were amazed by Henry Cavill’s comeback. The editor said that he has been a fan of the character since he was a kid and that it was a ‘dream come true’ for him to work on the cameo scene. Sale said,

As a kid who was cleaning that theater 40-something years ago and watching Superman, when that footage came in, I was just like, “Oh my God, I’m working on a movie that has Superman in it.” It was a personal moment where I was like, “Is this going to really be in the movie?”

Henry Cavill’s return as Superman has opened a vast pipeline of potential stories for DCU’s future. Cavill’s Man of Steel, helmed by Zack Snyder, started the DCU. Over the years, continuous changes in the franchise’s plans set aside the storyline that began with Man of Steel, keeping Cavill out of the suit. Before Black Adam, Cavill could only don the suit once for Zack Snyder’s Justice League reshoots. Hopefully, we will see him much sooner under the new DC Studios leadership.

But now that he is back, the formerly disbanded storyline shall be picked up again; I, for one, though excited for a Black Adam-Superman showdown, am more thrilled about watching Superman and Batman again on-screen in s story set within the DCU. Or how about Man of Steel 2?