After Warner Bros.’ global premiere of the DC superhero movie “Black Adam” in New York, footage of the film’s post-credit scene leaked onto social media Wednesday night, prompting copyright takedowns by Twitter.
The blockbuster, which stars Dwayne Johnson as the deadly titular antihero, has been rumored for months to possibly feature a cameo appearance of Henry Cavill as Superman or Zachary Levi as Black Adam’s heroic adversary, Shazam. Johnson stoked the flames in an interview with CinemaBlend this past week when asked if he plans to do a movie in which Black Adam fights the Man of Steel.
“Absolutely. That is the whole point of this man,” Johnson said. “But also what I really meant by, ‘This is a new era in the DC Universe,’ is listening to the fans. Listening to the fans. And doing our best to give the fans what they want.”
Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment when reached Thursday by TheWrap. Twitter also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The leaks and deleted videos were widespread on Twitter. It was unclear how other social media and video-sharing platforms were handling leaks of the post-credit scene. On Thursday morning, several videos from the leak remained on YouTube.
Johnson’s producing partners, Dany and Hiram Garcia, also eagerly teased the postcredit scene during a recent Q&A at the L’Atitude Conference, saying that the scene was one that was “years in the making.” Johnson’s other big DC film this year, “DC League of Super-Pets,” also had a mid-credits scene in which Black Adam, Superman, and their respective pets share a humorous scene together.
Leaks of major scenes in superhero movies are a regular occurrence despite studios’ best efforts to clamp down on spoilers. Last year, Sony had to issue copyright takedowns of blurry footage of the first trailer of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” just before its release at CinemaCon, revealing Alfred Molina’s return as Doctor Octopus nearly 20 years after first playing him in “Spider-Man 2.” After its premiere in December, “Spider-Man” footage leaked once again of alums Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning as their versions of Peter Parker.
