Director David F. Sandberg must have the speed of Hermes because he’s wrapped filming on his DCEU movie, Shazam 2. Sandberg announced the news on Instagram, posting a picture of himself standing in the ruins of a bedroom along with the caption: “That’s a wrap! Now sleep.” The Annabelle Comes Home director has been using his social media to keep fans updated on the action movie’s progress, so it’s unsurprising this is how he’d announce that shooting was finished.
A follow up to 2019’s Shazam!, starring Zachary Levi as the titular superhero, the film tells the story of Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who transforms into his heroic alter ego when he speaks the secret magic word. Titled Shazam! Fury of the Gods plot details about the upcoming sequel are being kept more secret than the location of The Rock of Eternity.
Still, a few tasty details have slipped through the spoiler net during filming. We know, courtesy of a picture shared by Sandberg, that the whole Shazam family are returning for the sequel. That photo also revealed that the whole family’s getting fancy new costumes as well, and one member of the gang is getting a whole new face.
In the first film, Grace Fulton, who played Billy’s older foster sister Mary Bromfield, will also portray her adult superhero form. Michelle Borth played her superpowered counterpart in the first movie, but Sandberg decided that Bromfield looked old enough to play herself as an adult.
Rachel Zegler, Helen Mirren, and Lucy Liu are all set to appear as well. They’ll be playing daughters of Atlas, who may be the movie’s villains. We know two people won’t be making an appearance: Mark Strong, who played Dr Sirvana in the first film, and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. Strong confirmed he wouldn’t be reprising his evil alter ego in an interview with Cinemablend.
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“Dr Sivana isn’t in Shazam 2. [Mirren and Liu] are the villains, so I am very happy to take a back seat and let the women go in there and do their villainous stuff,” he explained. “So even though it’s sort of implied at the end of one that Sivana would come back with Mister Mind, they’ve gone in a sort of different direction in order to sort of allow the fact that it would probably be more fascinating to see those women do their evil stuff.”
Johnson’s absence, meanwhile, was confirmed by Sandberg himself. A fan asked the director about the prospect of Johnson’s Black Adam making an appearance, to which he replied, “No, he has his own movie.” Fans have wanted Shazam to face Black Adam on the big screen for a long time now. The pair are intrinsically linked in the comics because they both draw their powers from the same magical source.
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While Shazam is a kind-hearted hero though Black Adam is more… complicated. While we wouldn’t call him an outright villain, he’s certainly had brushes with super-villainy and isn’t afraid of doling out lethal justice when he needs to. Maybe that’s why he’s not appearing in Fury of the Gods, we can’t have a murderous antihero in a family movie.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods thunders into theatres in June, 2023. If you can’t get enough DC goodness then check out our guide on how to watch the Arrowverse in order.