Shazam 2 Director Reveals The Fate Of The Superhero In DC Universe’s Future
Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg tells fans on Twitter that if they don't come out to support the sequel, the hero won't be a part of the new DCU.
Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg wants you to know that it won’t be him who decides if Zachary Levi‘s titular hero continues after The Flash reboots the DCU; it’s the fans who will make the call. Responding to a fan on Twitter who said he refused to come out to see Shazam! Fury of the Gods because of “the drama” at DC Studios, but also wanted to know if the hero would be in the rebooted DCU, Sandberg told the fan he couldn’t have it both ways. “[I]f people don’t go see the movie,” Sandberg wrote, then Levi’s time as Shazam will be over.
As Sandberg notes, in James Gunn’s announcement about the first batch of projects coming out of DC Studios, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 writer/director said that Shazam 2 wouldn’t contradict the events of the new DCU. Gunn and DC Studios co-head Peter Safran therefore may not have any reason to automatically dismiss Levi’s hero from the rebooted narrative, but if the sequel isn’t a success, they also don’t necessarily have an incentive to keep him around. If you’re David F. Sandberg, you don’t want DC Studios to be just okay with keeping Shazam, you want them to be begging you to make another movie.
So far, things aren’t looking that great for Shazam 2. The sequel is projected to pull in between $43 and $52 million on its opening weekend, as opposed to the $53.3 million the original made during its premiere weekend in 2019. And that’s with the new film costing $25 million more to make than the first.
It’s also worth nothing that the while 2019’s Shazam! did well, with a worldwide gross of $366 million according to Box Office Mojo, it was far from one of the more successful superhero blockbusters. If Shazam 2 fails to achieve even the original’s gross, it’s likely you can assume Zachary Levi’s days as the titular hero are over.
Of course, if last year’s Avatar: The Way of Water taught us nothing else, it’s that early ticket sales projections are hardly the end of the story. Many were predicting disaster for James Cameron’s long gestating sequel, and it not only became one of only 3 films in 2022 to make more than $1 billion, but it grossed more than any other movie that year.
Three months after the release of Shazam 2, Ezra Miller makes their return as the Scarlet Speedster in The Flash. The events of the film will reboot the DCU’s narrative, undoing much of the so-called “Snyderverse.” Time will tell if Levi’s hero has a place in the new narrative.
Shazam 2, aka Shazam! Fury of the Gods hits theaters on Friday, March 17th. The feature will introduce the Daughters of Atlas — a trio of villains played by Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren. Zachary Levi returns as Shazam and Djimon Honsou reprises the role of the wizard Shazam.
