Viola Davis' Amanda Waller, known for overseeing The Suicide Squad's Task Force X, has a mysterious new role in Black Adam. Viola Davis' Amanda Waller is a very influential figure in the DC Extended Universe, having the power to lead two different versions of Task Force X and keep the Justice League on call. However, she started to lose ground in The Suicide Squad, when her team overruled her decisions in order to save innocent civilians. But even with things getting increasingly out of hand, Amanda Waller may still have some secret tricks under her sleeve.
Black Adam will introduce Dwayne Johnson's titular anti-hero as well as the DCEU's Justice Society, which includes heroes such as Doctor Fate, Atom-Smasher, Cyclone, and Hawkman. These metahumans created their superteam long before Batman and Wonder Woman founded the Justice League, and Black Adam himself gained his powers 5000 years before Billy Batson received the power of Shazam. Now that Black Adam is free in the modern-day DCEU, he will undoubtedly cross paths with established DCEU figures, but before he meets Shazam, he will probably have to deal with Amanda Waller.
During Warner Bros.' Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Viola Davis' Amanda Waller was revealed to be part of the Black Adam cast. This announcement came alongside a full trailer for Shazam! Fury of the Gods and a short teaser for Black Adam, but no further information was revealed. With so little DCEU content announced at SDCC 2022, the true nature of Amanda Waller's role in Black Adam now becomes one of the biggest DCEU mysteries, as it could affect Black Adam, the Suicide Squad, and the DCEU as a whole, especially when the twist at the end of Peacemaker is taken into account.
Amanda Waller's DCEU Return Makes No Sense After Peacemaker
After Peacemaker and A.R.G.U.S. succeeded in taking down the alien Butterflies without the aid of the Justice League, Leota Adebayo — none other than Amanda Waller's daughter — publicly revealed Waller's involvement in Task Force X and their shady operations. She exposed Waller's forgery of Peacemaker's diary and explained that the Task Force X members are criminals who work for Waller in exchange for a lighter sentence. This statement will surely tie Amanda Waller to the destruction caused by Starro's escape in Corto Maltese and the assassination of high-profile figures such as senator Royland Goff, who was secretly a Butterfly. On that note, the news of Peacemaker's worldwide Butterfly invasion will likely spark public outrage, and it will all fall on Amanda Waller's shoulders regardless of her real intentions.
Even if Amanda Waller were to talk her way out of legal trouble, she will no longer have the same leverage for future Task Force X missions. She could try to recruit Black Adam or any surviving member of the Justice Society (already a challenging task), but she won't be able to manipulate them the same way she did with less powerful anti-heroes such as Peacemaker and Harley Quinn. Bouncing back would be a miracle in and of itself, and controlling Black Adam is likely off the table. Still, her participation in the events of Black Adam is guaranteed, and she will continue to be a key DCEU character, perhaps even more now than ever before, considering Amanda Waller has her own upcoming spinoff. If there's something certain about Amanda Waller, it's that she always comes out on top.
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