Black Adam: Behind the scenes of *that* cameo

SPOILERS for Black Adam ahead! Even if you haven’t seen Black Adam, you probably already know about the post-credits scene between—Wait. Just in case you were lucky enough to not have it spoiled for you, consider this article as spoiler-heavy.

On a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Behind the Screen” podcast, Black Adam cinematographer Lawrence Sher unveiled how the scene between Black Adam and Superman was achieved, even with one of the parties halfway across the globe.

The post-credit scene of box office champ Black Adam—which seems to be getting much of the movie’s attention—wasn’t done in one day or even one location. Instead, it was pieced together beginning on the final day of “additional photography” aka reshoots. That portion involved only Dwayne Johnson

As Sher put it, Black Adam director Jaume Collet-Serra told him, “Let’s just quickly take this throne room set that we were working in…We’re going to create something for Dwayne to walk into…And we’re going to shoot it in like 10 minutes.”

After that the Black Adam production team shot the Superman portion, not knowing if Henry Cavill was even going to be available. So they used a body double, focusing on Superman’s logo on his suit. “Watching an actor come out of a full silhouette into that, was actually goosebumps,” said Scher. “‘Wow, this is 100 percent going to work. Now they need to figure out if they can get the guy with the head to be there.’”

It runs out, they could get the guy with the head—they just had to shoot his portion remotely in London and then transplant his head on the body double. Hey, Superman may be faster than a speeding bullet, but Henry Cavill still has to get through security at the airport.

It’s a bit of fun behind-the-scenes movie magic that makes the scene even cooler.

What did you think of the post-credits scene between Black Adam and Superman?