The following post contains spoilers for Black Adam. If you’ve avoided them so far, you must not look at social media, like, ever.
Dwayne Johnson was so excited about the news, he basically spoiled it before Black Adam was even in theaters: After seemingly losing his gig as the Man of Steel four years ago in the wake of Justice League’s disastrous box-office performance, Henry Cavill is back in the DC Extended Universe as Superman.
And if the Black Adam post-credits scene — which features Cavill’s Superman confronting Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam for the first time — didn’t make it clear, Cavill himself just made it officially official on his own Instagram account.
Those were the exact words he used, in fact: “I wanted to make it official,” he said, “that I am back as Superman.” The video’s caption reads “The dawn of hope renewed. Thank you for your patience, it will be rewarded.”
“The image you see on this post,” Cavill added, “and what you saw in Black Adam are just a very small taste of things to come.”
Cavill debuted as Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, which was then followed by the two-hander sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and then Justice League. When that film bombed, Warner Bros. began exploring other potential Superman stories and castings, including a project (that is supposedly still in development) from J.J. Abrams and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
According to media reports, it was Dwayne Johnson himself who pushed for Cavill’s return in Black Adam; the star and producer even went around the then-head of DC Films to plead his case to the heads of Warner Bros about why Cavill’s Man of Steel should appear in Black Adam’s post-credits scene. Johnson got his wish, the head of DC Films who tried to shoot the idea down is no longer with Warner Bros., and now Cavill is back as Superman — although exactly where he’ll appear next is not yet clear.
Black Adam is in theaters now.
