It won't be long before the hierarchy of the DCEU changes with the release of Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson has championed the film through years of development hell and in October his antihero origin story will finally hit screens.
While Viola Davis' return as Amanda Waller seemingly connected Black Adam to the wider DCEU, it was a new trailer for the film that really confirmed its place within the franchise. The Rock posted the latest trailer on his social media accounts, showcasing footage of characters from previous DCEU films, including Superman, Batman, and Harley Quinn.
However, it wasn't the appearance of the Justice League in the trailer that caused a stir online, rather it was footage used from the Justice League movie itself.
Warner Bros. Posts "Corrected" Black Adam Trailer
In the new Black Adam trailer released online, a scene around six seconds into the video showed an explosion that was featured in 2017's Justice League.
This was the cause of massive backlash as fans were unhappy that Black Adam used footage from Joss Whedon's Justice League rather than Zack Snyder's 2021 re-cut of the film, specifically a shot of Steppenwolf in battle.
The trailer was quickly taken down and replaced with a new version, which Dwayne Johnson posted again on his social accounts with the caption "corrected".
In the new cut of the trailer, the Steppwnwolf scene from Justice League has been swapped out with another DCEU battle shot.
The trailer can be seen below:
Which Justice League is Canon?
Using footage from Justice League in Black Adam was a bold move by Warner Bros. for a few reasons.
Joss Whedon's Justice League has been a huge source of controversy since its release in 2017 after many of the film's stars, including Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot, came forward with complaints about abuse from the director. Warner Media launched an investigation into the allegations and claimed to have taken "remedial action".
Alongside this controversy, there's also the debate over which Justice League movie is considered canon in the DCEU. Whedon took over Justice League from the original director of the film, Zack Snyder, who stepped away after the passing of his daughter. After a few years and a long fan campaign, Snyder was given the chance to finish his version of the film, which resulted in the release of the four-hour Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021.
It's rare that two very different cuts of the same film would ever be widely released so Warner Bros. finds itself in a unique position here. After the Warner Media and Discovery merger, it was reported that Zack Snyder's Justice League was being disregarded in the continuity of the DCEU, much to the anger of Snyderverse fans.
The corrected version of Black Adam's trailer seems to skirt this issue by eliminating the use of footage from either Justice League entirely. It remains to be seen whether any references to the Justice League are made elsewhere in Dwayne Johnson's new movie.
Black Adam releases in theaters on October 21.
