DC’s “Black Adam” (starring Dwayne Johnson) marks Henry Cavill’s long-awaited return as Superman. Cavill shows up in the suit in the film’s end credits scene, and it teases a big future for the beloved character. However, Cavill’s return also brings up a lot of questions regarding the future of the DCEU (Man of Steel 2?) and the Snyderverse. In this video, CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O’Connell and CinemaBlend Head of Video, Hannah Saulic, discuss what this could mean for DC in-depth, with spoilers!
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00:00 Warning, warning, warning, warning.
00:02 (beep)
00:04 - There's no one on this planet that can stop me.
00:07 - Hi.
00:08 (upbeat music)
00:11 - Hey everybody, it's Hannah Solick,
00:19 the head of video here at Cinema Blend
00:21 with Sean O'Connell, our managing editor,
00:24 and we're here to talk about some very exciting DC news,
00:27 which is...
00:29 - He's back.
00:29 - Henry Cavill is back as Superman.
00:32 Sean, what was your initial reaction?
00:34 - Surprise, because you hear rumors leading up to it
00:39 of like, "Oh, he's back,"
00:40 but you never know really what you can believe
00:42 or how much of it is misdirection
00:44 or the whole Shazam joke of you get his body
00:48 but not his head.
00:50 But it was cool, it was really cool to see him.
00:53 And it happens so quickly that you have a hard time
00:57 really processing some of the big nerdy questions
00:59 that you want to have answered,
01:01 like what suit is he wearing?
01:02 And there was a huge debate about
01:04 what theme song is playing behind him.
01:06 And so, you don't even really think about all that stuff.
01:08 You're just like, "Oh, Henry's back."
01:09 So yeah, it was cool, it was very cool.
01:11 - You're really back.
01:12 - So we're gonna get into it
01:13 and I'm gonna have you explain to me exactly what happened
01:15 and answer all of those questions
01:17 because full transparency, we are recording this,
01:19 what it's today, it's the 17th, it's Monday.
01:21 I have not seen Black Adam yet,
01:23 but Sean got an early screener to do the press junket.
01:27 So I will not be able to,
01:30 I'm gonna find out in real time, I guess, what happens
01:32 'cause I do not know up until this point.
01:33 - Do you have tickets?
01:34 You're gonna go see it?
01:35 - I do, yes, I will be seeing it
01:37 when we post this on Thursday night,
01:38 I will be in the theater watching it.
01:41 - Be prepared.
01:42 (upbeat music)
01:45 - All right, so Sean. - All right.
01:46 - Tell me what happened.
01:48 - Okay, so it's a post-credits scene.
01:50 Totally end credits, not connected to the story at large
01:56 in general, but yes, Amanda Waller,
02:00 played by Viola Davis has shown up in the movie earlier
02:03 and she's the one who kind of puts the JSA
02:06 onto Black Adam and says,
02:07 "You should go check this guy out," which is unusual.
02:10 And I'll get into why that's unusual in a minute
02:11 because it's unusual what happens in the end credits too.
02:14 I keep wanting to call him The Rock.
02:15 Black Adam, who is essentially The Rock,
02:18 has agreed that he's become the protector of this area
02:22 that he is a guardian of, right?
02:24 Like these are his people.
02:26 He's back from wherever he had been in stasis
02:29 and is now going to be like, this is his place.
02:31 And so she's like, "Okay, cool."
02:33 This is Amanda Waller.
02:34 Amanda Waller shows up on like a piece of machinery
02:36 that floats into the sky and it's her on a video screen.
02:39 And she says, "Okay, look, you've chosen this place now."
02:41 - Floats in through the sky?
02:43 - Yeah, like it's like a ship that kind of comes down
02:46 but then the ship is really like, it's a screen
02:49 and her and her talking on the screen.
02:50 - How big is this?
02:52 - I don't know, it feels big.
02:53 - I'm imagining her on like a blimp.
02:56 - Well, it'd be like if you were at a football game
02:59 and it'd be like that sort of, you know,
03:01 marquee screen that's in the middle of the-
03:03 - Oh, got it, got it, got it, okay.
03:04 - That's big enough, you know, but like not like daunting.
03:07 And she says, "Okay, look, you've chosen
03:11 to protect this place, but now this is your prison.
03:16 If you leave this area, you are going to,
03:20 like, you're going to feel the full wrath of me, essentially."
03:24 And he says, "Well, we all know that there's nothing
03:26 on this planet that can stop me."
03:29 And she goes, "Well, I have access to people
03:32 that are not from this planet," kind of thing.
03:34 And in which case the blimp football marquee explodes
03:38 for some reason, yeah, explodes,
03:41 creating this like wall of smoke
03:43 and Black Adam's kind of staring into the wall of smoke.
03:46 And then you see like a silhouette, you actually hear it.
03:49 You hear like the landing of Superman
03:52 'cause it sounds like a sonic boom almost.
03:55 And then you see the silhouette start to come
03:57 through the smoke and he says,
03:59 well, I forget the quote exactly 100%,
04:03 but it's like, "It's been a long time
04:05 since somebody has made people this nervous."
04:09 And then Henry emerges from the cloud.
04:12 And then he goes, "Black Adam, we need to talk,"
04:15 sort of deal.
04:16 - And then we cut to Black.
04:20 - Well, you do get one more shot of the rock
04:22 and he kind of gives a little smile
04:24 and then it cuts to Black.
04:26 - So it's implied he knows who Superman is, yeah?
04:30 - No, not necessarily,
04:33 but he sees a guy who looks just like him,
04:36 who's built like him, kind of thing,
04:39 who is also kind of floating, flying.
04:41 So I guess he's, but no, he doesn't indicate,
04:44 yeah, it does not indicate that he knows who Superman is
04:47 in any way, shape or form.
04:49 Although I will say that throughout the course of the movie,
04:51 as you will see,
04:53 there are DC imagery all throughout,
04:57 especially in the bedroom of the kid
04:59 who is kind of like befriending Black Adam.
05:01 But I don't think Black Adam kind of notices that stuff.
05:05 But you'll get scenes of like him
05:06 punching someone through a wall
05:07 that has like a Superman poster on it kind of thing.
05:10 But I don't think Black Adam sort of notices that.
05:12 - Okay, so what scene is playing?
05:16 - Now, I swear it's the John Williams scene
05:20 and most everything else confirmed on social media
05:23 is the John Williams scene.
05:25 But I've only seen it the one time
05:26 and if I'm being completely honest,
05:29 I don't remember.
05:30 (laughing)
05:32 So it's not like it blares out.
05:35 It's not like it's a significant to me part of it.
05:39 I was more focused on,
05:40 the things I was focused on were the color of his suit
05:43 because he's wearing a traditional blue and red and gold
05:47 suit.
05:49 And so I was like, well, that's interesting
05:51 because then it doesn't connect to Snyder Cut, right?
05:54 Which would have still had him in the black and gray.
05:57 That's when Henry's going through the alleyway
05:59 at the end of Snyder Cut, he opens it up
06:00 and he still has the black and gray on underneath him.
06:02 Even more significant, which ties it back a little bit
06:05 to the John Williams theme, I guess it would be,
06:07 is that he's got the curl.
06:08 He has the curl on his forehead, which I thought was rad.
06:12 I was like, go back to that.
06:14 'Cause I thought that was really cool.
06:16 - So, okay.
06:17 When does Black Adam take, like,
06:20 I guess we'll get into this later,
06:22 but I do have questions about the timing
06:25 of the events of this movie that might answer
06:28 whether or not we're still connected,
06:30 not connected to Snyderverse and all that stuff.
06:33 But we'll get into that in our next section,
06:35 which is what the heck does this mean
06:36 for the future of DC movies?
06:38 And Sean, I saw you tweet something today.
06:40 It said that you had news.
06:42 - Tell me what you've learned.
06:43 - Okay, so I had two interviews
06:46 that I thought were significant.
06:47 And one was with The Rock,
06:49 which we've run on our channel before,
06:50 where I said to Dwayne Johnson,
06:52 do you plan at this moment to make the movie
06:55 that is teased in the end credits?
06:57 - Absolutely.
06:59 That is the whole point of this, man.
07:02 Thank you for asking that.
07:04 What I really meant by this is a new era in the DC universe
07:09 is listening to the fans.
07:11 Listening to the fans.
07:13 Now, and doing our best to give the fans what they want.
07:16 And maybe sometimes down the road,
07:18 and I went through this in pro wrestling,
07:20 is you can't always give them what you want,
07:22 but you'll always know that we're listening.
07:25 And in this case, with what you and I are talking about,
07:29 I have been listening,
07:32 and I've been wanting to address fans for years,
07:36 'cause I've been waiting for someone to step up
07:38 and address the fans and say, hey, we hear you.
07:40 So finally, after many months turned into many years,
07:45 between myself, Danny Garcia, who's co-founder,
07:52 our co-founder of Seven Bucks,
07:53 who she has had a, she's been a big advocate
07:56 in Henry's career, and been his manager,
08:01 as well as Hiram Garcia.
08:03 We ended up with what we ended up at.
08:05 And the whole goal and intention now
08:08 is to this new era, new time, now let's build out.
08:12 - They wanted me back for a reason.
08:17 I need to find out why.
08:19 - Now, we know that DC is notorious
08:23 for teasing films that don't necessarily come to pass.
08:26 I mean, we can talk about Lex Luthor and Deathstroke
08:30 teaming up at the end of a Justice League movie,
08:32 both Justice League movies.
08:33 You know, this is just, this is commonplace.
08:37 But so then on Friday, I spoke with Hiram Garcia,
08:41 who is Rock's longtime producer,
08:43 who is responsible significantly for Henry coming over,
08:46 as well as Danny Garcia, who Danny Garcia reps Henry Cavill.
08:50 And I said point blank to him,
08:52 is Cavill signed up for more Superman movies?
08:56 Like, what's the story there?
08:57 And he put on a little producer dance where he was like,
09:01 I can't say 100% what Henry is signed up for,
09:05 but we have grand plans for how we are going to use him.
09:10 We wanted this scene to be a way to establish
09:14 that these two characters are in the same universe
09:16 and that we are very much fighting hard right now
09:19 to make sure that he is contractually signed up
09:22 to do more Superman, more Superman in the DC universe.
09:25 So that's the news that I could break.
09:27 He talks a little bit more,
09:28 and you can find the story on CinemaBlend,
09:30 about being on set the day of filming with Henry
09:34 and having him in the suit and everything.
09:36 Rock was not there.
09:37 Hiram had to call him from the, it was a London set.
09:42 They probably went over
09:42 because Henry was probably doing Witcher at the time.
09:45 And so those two aren't actually in a scene together.
09:49 So keep that in mind as you're watching it.
09:52 They didn't get a chance to meet, but that's movie magic.
09:54 Yeah, currently right now,
09:55 the Seven Bucks Productions is,
09:57 according to Hiram Garcia,
09:59 fighting incredibly hard to get all those things finalized
10:01 and contracts finalized.
10:03 And it looks like more Henry in the DC EU.
10:06 But it sounds like it's implied with Black Adam,
10:10 not necessarily, 'cause my main question is,
10:11 okay, does this mean Man of Steel 2 is on the table?
10:15 We'll get to all the Snyderverse stuff in a minute,
10:17 but just what do you think?
10:20 Yeah, I think personally, knowing absolutely nothing,
10:25 that you would do a Superman movie first
10:30 and build towards Black Adam 2.
10:34 Only for this reason.
10:37 There's a certain amount of movies
10:40 that have already been announced in the DC universe
10:43 that we have to get through,
10:44 which can carry us all the way through 2023
10:45 and into a little bit of 2024.
10:47 I guess you could turn around really quickly
10:50 and say like, no, Black Adam 2
10:51 is gonna be one of those movies,
10:52 and that might be the case.
10:54 But because of how long it takes to develop these movies,
10:58 I would think that you would slip a Superman movie
11:00 and an individual Superman movie in there,
11:03 and then that would allow you a little bit more time
11:04 to build towards Black Adam 2.
11:07 At the same time, and I'm being a little bit jokey
11:10 and a little bit serious here,
11:12 there's no story in Black Adam,
11:14 so they very easily could just slap together Black Adam 2
11:17 and just call it Black Adam, but Superman,
11:20 and that's all they'll deliver,
11:22 and then that may come in 2024, 2025.
11:25 This isn't gonna happen immediately.
11:27 These things take a long time.
11:28 But you already have everything announced
11:30 all the way through 2023.
11:32 Even if you greenlit it now, like we're at the end of 2022,
11:36 it would be 2025 before this comes to pass.
11:39 And so then if you think about it,
11:41 if they do an individual Superman movie
11:43 that comes out in maybe 2025,
11:46 you might not see Black Adam for another year after that,
11:49 right, like 2026 even.
11:51 And this all hinges on Black Adam doing well.
11:54 - True.
11:55 - The reason why those other DC movies
11:58 didn't deliver on their teases
11:59 is because whatever movies they were being teased in
12:02 didn't go anywhere.
12:04 You know, Shazam has a tease at the end of it.
12:08 - The seven realms are about to be ours.
12:12 (laughs)
12:13 - That doesn't seem to be the plot
12:14 of Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
12:16 - No, I literally rewatched the original Shazam!
12:19 over the weekend.
12:20 I was like, "Oh my God, I totally forgot about this plot."
12:22 - Yeah, so did DC.
12:25 Do you think that the Superman and the Black Adam
12:28 that we're seeing exist in the same world
12:32 that, you know, Aquaman,
12:34 like the Aquaman that we have seen up until this point,
12:37 whether that be Snyderverse or just the DCEU
12:40 that's a mess right now,
12:41 like that they're trying to ignore
12:42 the Snyder's Justice League and call the 2017 cut canon.
12:45 Like, do you think this is happening
12:47 in that same sort of world?
12:49 Or do you think that this is a different timeline
12:52 and maybe that that will get somehow clarified
12:54 in the Flash from what you've seen from the movie?
12:58 - I think it's all happening in the world of the characters
13:00 that we are currently playing around with.
13:03 - Interesting.
13:04 - And I think that that could get altered in the Flash,
13:07 but otherwise this would be your opportunity,
13:10 if it wasn't in that universe,
13:12 if it was taking place in a separate universe
13:14 that maybe the Flash could access,
13:16 this would be your golden opportunity
13:18 to cast a different Superman.
13:19 - Hmm, I don't even know.
13:20 - Rock says that like, we've been listening to the fans,
13:23 you know, and the fans have wanted Henry back.
13:25 - I think he knows that if they brought in
13:27 a different Superman, people would riot.
13:29 Could you imagine?
13:32 - Crucified.
13:34 - Oh, and that poor actor, oh my God.
13:36 - From a business perspective, it might make sense
13:38 if you're setting up multiple movies,
13:41 unless you're thinking,
13:43 and this is why I asked Hiram Garcia this,
13:44 unless you've got Henry locked in
13:47 for another couple of movies, right?
13:49 Like, 'cause otherwise,
13:50 why are you bringing him into this end credit scene
13:51 to be like, we brought Henry back,
13:53 but it's really just for a glorified cameo,
13:54 it's never gonna pay off.
13:55 Like, he has to be signed up for something else.
13:59 - Well, I saw something on Twitter too,
14:01 like he was in LA a couple weeks ago at the same time,
14:05 and this is all like conspiracy stuff,
14:06 so take this with a grain of salt,
14:08 but people were like noticing that Gal Gadot,
14:10 Ben Affleck, and Henry Cavill were all in LA
14:12 at the same time that it was being reported
14:14 that Ezra Miller was doing additional photography
14:17 for the Flash, which is interesting to me.
14:20 And I've been wondering if we might get a Superman,
14:25 just like tiny little appearance in the Flash
14:28 now that he is officially back
14:30 and seems to be on better footing with Warner Brothers,
14:32 but I guess we shall see.
14:34 - We shall see, 'cause I saw this
14:36 from a totally unreliable source.
14:38 - A tinfoil hat.
14:39 - That did say that Supergirl,
14:42 Sacha Kalli's Supergirl is gonna share a scene
14:44 with Henry Cavill's Superman in Flash.
14:48 - Oh, interesting.
14:48 - I mean, I saw that on Twitter,
14:50 but I don't know how accurate it's gonna be.
14:52 - Yeah. - I like.
14:53 Yes, if you filmed a couple of scenes with Henry,
14:56 why wouldn't you film something else while he's in the suit
15:00 to then use in the Flash?
15:01 - Yeah. - Because if the Flash
15:04 is supposed to exist as a Flash point kind of thing,
15:07 then there are supposed to be looks
15:10 into all these other alternate DC universes
15:13 where you do see characters interacting,
15:16 and it would, again, further this question
15:19 that you're asking me, which is what universe
15:21 does all this take place in,
15:22 and I think that they all take place in the same spot.
15:25 Now, you're gonna get an opportunity in Flash
15:27 to see another alternate universe
15:29 where Keaton is the Batman,
15:30 but from everything that we know, Affleck is in this movie.
15:33 Then we also think Affleck's gonna be in Aquaman too.
15:35 - Yeah.
15:36 - The Warner Brothers, as much as they're trying
15:38 to move away from, and this is gonna pivot
15:39 right into our third point,
15:40 as much as they're trying to pivot away
15:42 from the Snyderverse of it all,
15:43 they're really going out of their way
15:46 to bring back all the characters, all the actors,
15:49 that are still part of the Snyderverse.
15:51 - Yes.
15:52 - When you would just rip the Band-Aid off
15:54 and recast them if you didn't wanna continue
15:55 to go down this route.
15:57 - Yes, okay, so that brings us to our last point,
16:00 which is are we restoring the Snyderverse, Sean?
16:03 - Okay, so I say this, and then I get crucified for it,
16:07 but I'm gonna say it again.
16:08 - Oh, boy.
16:10 - It feels like it's still here.
16:13 I know it's not Zack.
16:15 I know Zack isn't directing these movies,
16:17 but they're using all of the people that he cast.
16:21 And so that, to me, means that it's following a timeline
16:26 that has been started from "Man of Steel,"
16:29 and I think all the things that happened
16:30 in "Man of Steel" and "BVS" are canon.
16:34 Yes, that Justice League window gets really populated.
16:38 - It's just so real murky.
16:40 I don't even know if Warner Brothers knows what to do
16:43 about that situation and what to acknowledge
16:45 and what not to acknowledge,
16:46 'cause even just the whole mishap with the TV spot
16:49 with "Black Adam," how they had a shot
16:52 from the theatrical cut, and then they switched it,
16:54 and it was like, okay, well, then are you acknowledging
16:56 that this is in the Snyderverse?
16:58 I don't think they're thinking
16:59 about all of those nuances, necessarily.
17:02 - No, so they're not restoring the Snyderverse
17:05 in the sense that Zack had two other movies mapped out,
17:09 and those plot lines don't feel like
17:11 they're going to happen, right?
17:13 And they're not picking up the baton
17:15 of some of the things that were left
17:16 at the end of "Snyder Cut,"
17:17 like Lois Lane being pregnant.
17:19 But they are keeping those same actors,
17:21 so no, they're not restoring the Snyderverse, right?
17:25 'Cause in a clear-cut definition of it,
17:26 that would mean- - As of this moment,
17:27 yes, that would mean that Justice League 2-
17:28 - Right, that would mean taking Zack's ideas.
17:30 - Yeah. - Yeah.
17:31 So, pfft, so I guess, in a way,
17:34 they're saying 2017 is canon, but that's weird.
17:38 - Man, that's disgusting! - That's not funny!
17:40 - Yeah, and two, I mean, the end of Zack's arc
17:43 with Superman would see Henry Cavill back
17:47 in the blue and red and gold suit.
17:50 So, part of me is like, I mean,
17:52 there is a world in which this could just be like,
17:55 we're just gonna skip past all that stuff,
17:57 and this is years later, or whatever it might be,
17:59 which could explain why he might look different
18:02 or whatever, but yeah, I don't know.
18:04 It's a murky situation.
18:06 But do you think that this leaves the door open?
18:09 'Cause if they do "Man of Steel 2," for example,
18:12 or a Superman movie, are they gonna call it "Man of Steel 2"?
18:15 Are they just gonna try to rebrand it?
18:17 There's a lot of weird questions
18:19 that I think they're gonna trap themselves in
18:22 by introducing him. - I think we'll rebrand it.
18:23 - Really? - You know, I think
18:25 it would be a little bit similar to Nolan's movies.
18:28 Like, you got "Batman Begins,"
18:30 and then you got "The Dark Knight,"
18:31 and I really wanted the third movie
18:33 to be called "The Caped Crusader."
18:35 - Really? - Or just something
18:36 totally different, but not like "The Dark Knight Rises."
18:39 Like, yeah, that was shit.
18:41 That's a shit title.
18:42 'Cause it would've been really cool
18:43 if all three of them were in a trilogy,
18:46 but had totally distinct
18:48 - Names. - Titles, yeah.
18:50 And I think you can do that with,
18:51 you could have "Man of Steel" and I don't know
18:53 what the other titles would be,
18:54 but something very clearly Superman-related, you know?
18:58 But it's Henry.
19:00 - Very specific, all right.
19:02 - Although, I don't know if you saw this.
19:04 Today, on the day that we're recording,
19:06 there is a segment of the fan base
19:08 who is already doing a hashtag, #BoycottHenryCappell.
19:12 - Why? - Because they say
19:13 that him going back to work for Warner Brothers
19:16 without Zack Snyder is a complete betrayal.
19:20 - But see, here's a question.
19:21 Does Zack Snyder even wanna go work with Warner Brothers?
19:24 Because from everything he said about that experience,
19:27 I don't, and like, he's off with Netflix now
19:29 and has total creative freedom.
19:30 Like, does he even want that?
19:33 Like, I mean, I know we don't know, but.
19:35 - We don't know, sure.
19:36 But from an outsider's point of view,
19:37 like, it looks like a shit show.
19:39 - Yeah!
19:40 - Talks about what David Zaslav has done
19:42 since the major merger has been to sort of reduce costs
19:47 and to shuttle movies like "Batgirl," you know,
19:51 that are gone.
19:52 And it doesn't seem to be a place where creatives
19:55 are gonna be able to go and thrive.
19:57 So why would Zack, again, leave this freedom
19:59 that you talked about at Netflix
20:01 to go back and be micromanaged in Warner Brothers
20:05 if just to be able to play with these DC toys
20:08 that they took away from him in the first place?
20:09 It doesn't make any sense to me.
20:10 - And especially when they're still looking
20:11 for like their Kevin Feige of DC.
20:14 Like, it's clear to me at least
20:16 that like they still don't really have an overall plan.
20:19 And like, thank God for The Rock and his producing partners
20:21 who seem to at least be trying to do something
20:23 with the through line, getting some stuff on the radar.
20:26 But I mean, there's not even really like any leadership
20:29 that could say like, hey, we want your vision or we don't.
20:33 And that just, again, I don't see how it makes any sense
20:36 for Zack to do that, but continue.
20:38 Okay, so they're gonna boycott Henry Cavill.
20:41 - Well, so they say.
20:41 - I don't care.
20:42 I don't care.
20:43 - I am more curious about how Black Adam does
20:46 at the box office than I have been for any film
20:48 in a really long time.
20:49 Because whether it's fair to this one movie or not,
20:53 it seems like a lot is currently hinging
20:55 on the future of DC moving forward,
20:59 which shouldn't be the case.
21:00 Like they should have a concrete plan in place
21:02 and they should be hopeful that their movie does well,
21:05 but they should be knowing what's coming
21:07 for the immediate future.
21:08 Like Rock, when I was talking to him
21:10 in our Junket interview, was like,
21:11 there was a time when Black Adam was part
21:13 of this 10 film slate, you know,
21:15 and we were at the end of it kind of thing.
21:17 And I was like, think how different this story
21:20 might've been, this movie might've been,
21:21 if it had followed, you know, a Green Lantern Corps or.
21:26 - Was there like a new Gods film too
21:28 and like all this other stuff that's just like.
21:30 - Yes.
21:32 - You know, that just never happened, right?
21:33 So, you know, in a way.
21:36 - What do you think about, or sorry, go ahead.
21:39 - Well, I was gonna say, it's really funny
21:40 that we've talked about, you and I,
21:42 that it feels like DC broke away
21:44 from the need for everything to be connected.
21:46 And yet they, every time they take a step away
21:49 from like, we're doing, like,
21:50 Matt Reeves is doing this over here
21:52 and the Rock's gonna play Black Adam.
21:53 They still find a way to be like,
21:54 yeah, but it's all connected though.
21:56 - Yeah, I remember at Comic-Con in the Shazam trailer,
21:58 when they showed all those shots
22:00 of like the Justice League characters,
22:01 I was like, what are we doing?
22:03 Like, what is going on?
22:04 - You know what I noticed?
22:05 Nobody panics when things go according to plan.
22:08 Even if the plan is horrifying.
22:10 - So talking about like box office,
22:13 he's very clearly teasing that we are going to see
22:16 Henry Cavill's Superman.
22:17 So do you think that they were like worried
22:21 that Black Adam wasn't gonna be able to sell tickets
22:23 and that's why they're kind of like letting this be spoiled
22:26 before it comes out?
22:27 Like, what do you think about that?
22:29 - Yeah, I do think that that's the case.
22:31 I haven't seen any traditional tracking of this yet,
22:34 but that has been suggested and it kind of feels accurate
22:39 because outside of the Rock,
22:41 like Pierce Brosnan obviously is extremely famous,
22:44 but like the JSA members that they chose are unusual
22:48 because they're not like,
22:49 damn, I gotta go see that person fill in the blank,
22:51 that character on screen.
22:54 So then you have the Rock playing a character that,
22:56 again, not a lot of people probably know
22:58 'cause he's not a mainstream DC character.
23:01 So tracking might be low, but I don't know.
23:03 I'm thinking that, so Brendan texted me today from school
23:06 and he asked me if I'd seen Black Adam,
23:08 which shows how much Brendan pays attention
23:09 to anything that I've done.
23:10 I've told him that I interviewed The Rock.
23:12 - That's hilarious.
23:13 - And I've told him about Black Adam.
23:14 Yeah, he doesn't listen to a single thing
23:16 that happens in my life. - Oh, that's so funny.
23:17 - He goes, "Did you see Black Adam?"
23:18 I said, "Yeah, I did."
23:20 He goes, "My friends and I are talking about it.
23:22 "Should we go see it?"
23:23 And I was like, "Yeah, you guys should totally go see it."
23:24 'Cause it's aimed at 14 year old boys, right?
23:28 He goes, "Well, what did you give it for star ratings?"
23:29 And I was like, "Well, I didn't give it
23:30 "a very good star rating."
23:32 But I said, "But I'm like a comic book nerd.
23:33 "You guys will enjoy it.
23:34 "Just go and watch things blow up."
23:37 So I think it'll do well,
23:39 even though it's not a good movie.
23:41 So I could see it, but by well, I'm putting it,
23:44 I think I'm in like the 75 to 80 range for opening weekend,
23:49 which I don't know if that's a failure or not.
23:51 I don't know if that's good.
23:52 I'm sure that they want over 100 million, but.
23:54 - Yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting to see,
23:57 especially compared to something like the Batman
23:59 that opened earlier this year,
24:00 that's like not connected to that at all.
24:02 And just to see kind of like what the audience is feeling,
24:05 especially with this divisive separation
24:08 between some of the people who wanna see Zack's vision
24:12 and some people who don't.
24:14 - They're already boycotting Henry Cavill.
24:17 - And it's not all the Snyder fans.
24:20 It's a subset, I'm sure, but yeah, it's a mess.
24:23 And God, I just wish DC would get it together,
24:26 but it seems like every week there's something
24:29 that makes us go, what?
24:30 - I'm an agent of chaos.
24:32 - Yeah, every single week.
24:33 And it's sad because we were supposed to have
24:35 Shazam Fury of the Gods coming like right behind this too
24:38 in December.
24:39 And I think that could have helped build
24:42 some real momentum for them.
24:43 And I understand they had to get that movie
24:44 out of the way of Avatar 2,
24:45 like everyone was gonna suck up
24:47 all the oxygen in the room.
24:49 But it would have been cool if DC just kept being like,
24:51 we're really confident in these movies
24:52 and we're gonna keep putting them out
24:54 so people can come and see them
24:56 'cause we're excited about our characters.
24:58 - Yeah, what do you think about the whole thing
24:59 that Black Adam is Shazam's nemesis
25:02 and basically The Rock has been like,
25:04 oh, well, he's not big enough.
25:06 Like he's basically said without saying sorry
25:08 to Zachary Levi, but nah.
25:11 - That's kinda true.
25:12 And it's kind of an insult 'cause it is kinda like,
25:15 we're gonna hop over the guy I should be fighting
25:17 to get to the big one that everybody wants us to see.
25:20 - Is he just scared of me and my family
25:22 'cause we're so awesome?
25:22 'Cause I get that.
25:23 - Here's the thing that I've mentioned earlier
25:25 that's weird to me though.
25:27 So Amanda Waller sends the Justice Society
25:31 to go after Black Adam.
25:33 And she essentially says something to Dr. Fate,
25:35 like, well, who's the team, who are you putting together?
25:38 And then she says, I have access to other people
25:40 who are not from this planet and she sends Superman.
25:43 But I thought Waller only worked with the Suicide Squad.
25:45 I thought that she recruited villains.
25:47 Why are good guys working with Amanda Waller?
25:49 - Yeah, somebody said back,
25:52 I think it was around Comic-Con
25:53 when people got footage that she was gonna be
25:57 in Black Adam and everyone was like, what?
25:59 I don't know if it, maybe it was like Eric Eisenberg
26:01 or somebody in the room in our Comic-Con suite was like,
26:03 yeah, they're trying to make Waller like the Nick Fury
26:07 of DC to kinda like tie.
26:09 And I was like, I get it, but also like,
26:12 yeah, to your point, like she's in charge of Task Force X.
26:16 Like why, what?
26:17 Or did they explain that at all?
26:19 Or is she just like on the phone?
26:20 Okay.
26:21 - No, she's just able to like coordinate things
26:24 with these good guys as well too.
26:27 Even though that throws out,
26:28 not that the haircut is in canon
26:31 or I don't know what the haircut is at this point,
26:32 but there's a scene at that one where Bruce Willis,
26:35 Bruce Wayne shows up.
26:37 My head.
26:39 Bruce Wayne shows up and says something like,
26:40 hey, keep these guys in line
26:42 or you're gonna have to answer to me sort of deal.
26:44 You know, like.
26:45 - Interesting.
26:46 - DC doesn't know what they're doing.
26:49 (laughing)
26:51 - That's not funny.
26:52 - Just based off of this conversation,
26:53 there's a lot more DC stuff to talk about.
26:57 So Sean, we might need to start doing weekly videos again.
27:01 If the people watching this wanna see that,
27:04 let us know in the comments.
27:05 Maybe we can even do a Black Adam spoiler review
27:08 once I've had a chance to see it.
27:11 - We should definitely,
27:12 because I think you and I need to talk freely
27:14 about that movie.
27:15 - Okay.
27:16 - I wanna hear your thoughts.
27:17 - Oh God, I'm like nervous.
27:18 I know what you think,
27:20 which makes me like, oh God, going into it.
27:23 I'll put a link to your spoiler free review
27:25 in case anybody wants to check that out
27:26 because that'll be up before this.
27:27 - Your expectations will have been lowered.
27:30 - You think?
27:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]