While Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made sure to repeatedly spoil it in advance, Black Adam ended with the "surprise" return of Henry Cavill's Superman.
Johnson, looking to change the hierarchy of how the DCEU was run, intended to spearhead a new slate of projects revolving around Black Adam, including a Hawkman movie, Man of Steel 2, and an eventual Black Adam/Superman crossover (he wanted nothing to do with Shazam, though).
Cavill's return was met with a positive response, and the actor even shot a cameo role in The Flash, alongside Michael Keaton's Batman and Sasha Calle as Supergirl.
Black Adam bombed, and DC Studios was formed shortly after. Led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the studio decided that a fresh start was best for the Man of Tomorrow and announced a Superman movie starring a new actor—David Corenswet—as Clark Kent. So, just as quickly as he announced his return, Cavill was forced to bid farewell to Supes.
Talking to Josh Horowitz, Gunn revealed the true story behind Cavill's departure.
"It’s terrible," he acknowledged. "Believe it or not, the day we were dealing with trying to figure out if we could take the job at DC Studios. The day the deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back. And I was like, 'What is going on? We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do Superman.' It was really unfair to him and a total bummer."
"There was a vacuum at the time and a lot of people were...they had a take on what they wanted to do at DC and they were trying to force their way and it was just never part of the equation for [WBD CEO] David Zaslan," Gunn added, seemingly throwing shade at Johnson (who, you may recall, attempted to force the studio's hand by leaking financial data to make Black Adam look like a hit and announcing a Hawkman movie).
Gunn continued, "We came in, and that was really unfortunate. I’m like, 'This poor guy.' [Henry] was an absolute gentleman and a great guy about it. He said, 'The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to coming from you guys.' And I’m like, 'That’s a class act.'"
Despite this being a disappointing end to Cavill's run as Superman, Gunn made it clear that he's open to working with the actor in the DCU. "I talked to him about it on that day," he confirmed. "I would love to put Henry in something."
It was deeply unfortunate to see things pan out the way they did, but there were clearly some crossed wires, and Cavill got caught up in them.