Fans of the original DCEU thought that Henry Cavill's time as Superman ended on a relatively high note after successfully campaigning for the official release of Zack Snyder's director's cut of Justice League in 2021. Unfortunately, a year later, that would not actually be his last appearance as Superman, as he made an unfortunate last-minute cameo in one more movie that was originally meant to change the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe.
Since 2014, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had been vying to play Teth-Adam, first in the initial plans as the villain for Shazam!, before the idea was split into two movies, with Johnson starring in Black Adam as an anti-hero, which finally released on October 21, 2022. A movie in which he would not fight Shazam, the character's decades-long archenemy in the comics, but would instead tussle with the Justice Society of America before moving on to someone even higher up the superhero food chain.
In the post-credits scene of Black Adam, a drone descends from overhead at the dead of night inside the ruined temple that previously held the climactic fight of the movie. Stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight is Teth-Adam with Johnson's stoic expression.
A hologram beams from the drone, showing Viola Davis' Amanda Waller, who earlier in the movie almost successfully captured Black Adam before he escaped her Antarctica prison. In her greeting, she gives the anti-hero a warning: if he stepped out of Kahndaq, he would be put down.
Undeterred, Black Adam arrogantly goads her, claiming that "There's no one on this planet that can stop me," only for Waller to tee up the already spoiled cameo, assuring him that "I can call in a favor and send people who aren't from this planet." Black Adam calls her bluff, and after blowing up the drone with a flash of lightning, Henry Cavill's Superman floats down amidst the smoke.
As he lands, Superman says that Kahndaq's newest king has made the world nervous, with Henry Cavill's last line as Superman being, "Black Adam, we should talk." The post-credits scene closes on Johnson's still-stoic face, with them never having their talk.
Not only was this a cameo merely fulfilling the wishes of The Rock's frankly egotistical fantasy of fighting Superman, a character that Black Adam had barely fought a handful of times in the comics, but worse still, this cameo misled Henry Cavill into believing he was actually returning as Superman.
It appeared that Cavill was only given verbal assurance that he'd be returning, not a contractual one, and was strung along until newly enlisted co-CEO James Gunn confirmed he wouldn't be returning after all.
To add insult to injury, Henry Cavill's Superman would technically make two more voiceless cameos in the DCEU's final embers. First, in the much maligned The Flash, and a silhouetted appearance in Peacemaker, before the next season retconned him out of existence, replacing him with David Corenswet's Superman.
But it's his cameo in Black Adam that really tainted not only Henry Cavill's legacy as Superman but also the DCEU itself, as it was clearly a desperate attempt to cling to relevance when all signs pointed to the DC Universe heading for a hard reboot.
Henry Cavill Better Off Without Superman
As much as Snyderverse fans wished it, Henry Cavill is never coming back as Superman, with their last hope being the merger with Paramount, which ended with Zack Snyder's DCEU being loudly ignored. However, with where Cavill is career-wise, why would he ever want to come back anyway?
After he realized that he wouldn't be returning as Superman, it would only be two months after Black Adam's release when he managed to nab his dream job: starring in and executive producing a live-action series adaptation of Warhammer 40K for Amazon Prime Video. A franchise that he was an enormous fan of, something that likely wouldn't have been possible if he was kept busy as Superman.
Not only that, but he'll also be an executive producer on Amazon's animated series for the tabletop game, which will be a direct spinoff of Blur Studios' Warhammer 40K episode from the animated anthology series Secret Level.
Cavill might have been duped into thinking he was coming back as Superman after his cameo in Black Adam, but he had the last laugh in the end.
