Warning: This article contains spoilers about: Black Adam
The DCEU had a very cohesive path when Man of Steel first started the franchise, but when Zack Snyder quit the franchise midway through production Justice League. Since then, there seems to be no set direction for the franchise, but Black Adam has come to rectify that and pull together the strands of the broken DCEU continuity in one move. Dwayne Johnson’s debut as the almighty antihero features cameos from The Suicide Squad and peacekeeper‘s Amanda Waller and Emilia Harcourt, played by Amanda Waller and Jennifer Holland respectively, as well as Henry Cavill’s return as Superman.
This isn’t the first time an attempt has been made to bring the DCEU’s unrelated stories together with James Gunn’s peacekeeper featuring a Justice League cameo, with Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller appearing in and engaging in dialogue during their scene in the finale of peacekeeperthe first season. Additionally, Shazam! Featured an appearance by a “decapitated” Superman, who subtly connected that film to the DCEU universe. However, Black Adam not only directly linked the franchise’s previous films, but also set up a new story for where it’s headed next.
During the closing act of Black AdamAfter teasing the existence of the Justice League with some merchandise that appears during a fight between Black Adam and Hawkman in Amon Tomaz’s bedroom, Adam surrenders to the JSA and is taken into custody by ARGUS, the group led by Amanda Waller. When he escapes, Waller advises Adam that Khandaq is his prison, and if he leaves, she will get someone “not from this planet” to treat him. This leads to the appearance of Henry Cavill’s Superman, who tells Adam they need to talk. And with that scene, the future of the DCEU seems to have been set in motion.
Will Black Adam and Superman fight in the DCEU?
According to Dwayne Johnson and Black Adam Producer Hiram Garcia, Superman and Black Adam will go head to head in the DCEU, but it won’t be a quick one-shot battle. Now that the upcoming Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav has already talked about the DCEU and now has a ten-year plan in mind to rival that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looks like the fight between Black Adam and Superman will be told over a number of films and will form the backbone of what Johnson has dubbed “Phase 1” of the franchise. In response to some of the great reviews of Black AdamJohnson wrote on his Twitter account last week:
“This means a lot, thank you very much. [Black Adam] will serve as our Phase 1 of storytelling in our DC universe. Exciting times for the brand to build and expand.”
Now that the movie has established that the Snyderverse, Gunnverse, Black Adam and therefore Shazam!, all part of the same continuity, Warner Bros. hope they can continue with the constant complaints from fans that some universes are better/worse than others. However, even this isn’t likely to completely quell the calls to “restore the Snyderverse” that still haunt social media halls a few times a year.
Black Adam and everything related to the DCEU is now in theaters.