Horror’s most infamous address is getting another set of keys. Amazon MGM Studios is developing a new horror movie set in the Amityville Horror franchise, and the big news is who’s moving in behind the camera, because they have a The Conjuring Universe connection.

The Conjuring Connection Behind The Amityville Reimagining

Per Variety reporting, Annabelle: Creation filmmaker David F. Sandberg has inked a deal to helm a “reimagining” of the original classic, with Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing set to write. The Safran Company’s Peter Safran and John Rickard will produce alongside Sandberg, with Natalia Safran executive producing and Lotta Losten joining as EP.

Sandberg has a proven pipeline with The Safran Company, as Annabelle: Creation was critically well-received and crossed $300 million globally. The Lights Out creator then teamed with the producers on Shazam! Pair that with Goldberg & Naing’s genre résumé — The Nun II, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Autopsy of Jane Doe — and you’ve got a creative brain trust fluent in slow-burn dread and supernatural escalation. That’s exactly the energy you want for a long-running franchise rooted in the psychology of a family under siege by demonic forces.

This update comes on the heels of The Conjuring: Last Rites' opening weekend, which has already scared up more than $200 million worldwide, and the announcement of The Conjuring streaming series.

What We Know About The Reimagining of Amityville

Variety describes the new film as a reimagining of the 1979 feature, itself a book-to-screen adaptation from Jay Anson’s 1977 best-seller and the real-world DeFeo murders that set the legend in motion. Plot specifics are under wraps, which is no surprise this early into preproduction, but the phrasing suggests a return to the core ingredients of the original movie.

For those who don’t know, Amityville Horror began with a real-life tragedy, then spiraled into myth. In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. (who recently died in prison) murdered his family at 112 Ocean Avenue. The Lutzes moved in a year later, fled after 28 days, and, amid financial troubles, embellished the haunting with attorney William Weber, who later called it fabricated.

The 1979 film was a hit, but prestige faded fast: Amityville II (1982) courted controversy, Amityville 3-D (1983) chased gimmicks, and by the ’90s the “curse” jumped to haunted objects (lamp, clock, mirror, dollhouse). When the novel’s plot slipped into the public domain, a flood of microbudget titles followed, with such obvious winners (joke) as:

• The Amityville Haunting
• Amityville Clownhouse
• Amityville in the Hood
• Amityville Vampire
• Amityville Shark House
• Amityville in Space
• Amityville Thanksgiving

All pretty bad, and definitely not among the best horror movies on Tubi, but hey, they’re streaming for free, so you can make up your mind for yourself. I'm sure Amityville Streaming Service was pitched to someone, somewhere.

That’s the state of the franchise that Sandberg and Amazon MGM are stepping into. Another Amityville movie might sound like déjà boo, but this one comes with bona fide haunt handlers attached. With Sandberg directing, Goldberg & Naing scripting, and The Safran Company producing for Amazon MGM Studios, the notorious Dutch Colonial has its most promising caretakers in years.

The original 1979 The Amityville Horror and its 2005 remake, in my estimation, the only ones worth watching, are available to stream with an HBO Max subscription.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Until Dawn. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!

Until Dawn, a love letter to the horror genre, is a movie featuring a wide variety of terrors – from slashers to witches to possession to wendigos – but my favorite of all of them is simple spontaneous combustion. The film’s protagonists think that they can subvert the plot by holing up in a bathroom and waiting for the sun to rise, but that plan turns calamitous when they drink down water from the faucet and start exploding.

I love the sequence as a kind of meta rebellion by the characters that is met with extreme consequence, and I love the sequence as a horror fan who likes to see big bursts of blood. Because of this, I felt compelled to ask screenwriter and producer Gary Dauberman and director David F. Sandberg about it when I spoke with them earlier this month at the Until Dawn press day in Los Angeles. Dauberman explained that in the writing of the script, the basic idea of the scene was something that actually pre-dated his work on the new video game adaptation, and he thought that Sandberg (with whom he had previously worked on Annabelle: Creation) was the right filmmaker to pull it off:

Exploding characters practically means using a ridiculous amount of fake blood – enough fake blood to completely ruin a set. That was a big thing in the time-looping story of Until Dawn, which repeatedly uses the same locations. The way that the production got around this issue, as David F. Sandberg explained, was to schedule the sequence to be shot at the very end so that clean-up wasn’t a big deal. Said the director,

As Sandberg went on to explain, the production created blood-filled replicas of the actors (they weren’t just human-shaped bags), and filming the characters explode was as easy as swapping the replicas into frame.

It was so simple, in fact, that the Until Dawn crew was able to put together a rough edit on set that effectively demonstrated the effect. Gary Dauberman added,

Starring Belmont Cameli, Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A'zion, Ji-young Yoo, and Peter Stormare (reprising his role as Dr. Hill from the game), Until Dawn arrived in theaters this past weekend and is now playing everywhere.

David F. Sandberg helmed the well-regarded horror movies Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, which, like many directors before him, opened the door to much bigger projects. In his case he took the leap over to DC’s Extended Universe to direct two Shazam! films, and the experience was so bad for him that he had planned to get away from major IPs. At least, until the script for Until Dawn came along.

While the first Shazam! movie was generally well regarded and a reasonable box office success, the sequel (which came as DC’s first attempt at a cinematic universe was ending) was slammed hard by critics as well as fans. Sandberg revealed to our sister site, Gamesradar, that he even received death threats from working on the franchise, which led him to decide to avoid IP projects going forward. He said…

Certainly, if David F. Sandberg had decided to work on an original project, there wouldn’t be existing fans who feel so invested in the IP that they feel a need to threaten a director. It’s completely understandable why Sandberg would want to steer clear of that. A lot of fandoms can be quite toxic, and the director wouldn’t be the first to avoid working on certain properties to avoid its fans.

Unfortunately, in modern Hollywood, getting away from IP entirely is a fairly tall order. The conventional wisdom is that movies based on existing properties are much surer bets than original concepts, and so those are the movies that tend to get made. Until Dawn, based on the video game of the same name, was the script that David F. Sandberg received. And while he might have initially wanted to avoid it, he ultimately decided it was a movie worth making.

To be fair, Until Dawn is very intentionally the video game equivalent of a classic slasher movie, so making a movie version of it isn’t so much about being faithful to an IP as it is understanding how to make a horror movie. This is certainly something Sandberg knows well.

Thus far, critics are split on Until Dawn, so not everybody thinks this was a movie that Sandberg necessarily needed to make, though our own Until Dawn review found it entertaining enough. We’ll find out this weekend whether or not the audience agrees.

Horror fans have been absolutely feasting so far this year, and with more genre flicks like Sinners and Hell of a Summer on the 2025 movie calendar, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. One of those upcoming horror movies is Until Dawn, an adaptation of the popular video game, and critics were able to screen the film ahead of its April 25 release. Let’s take a look at what they’re saying.

First reactions to Until Dawn called the movie a blast, especially if seen with a crowd, and our own Eric Eisenberg mostly agrees. The plot revolves around a group of friends being brutally murdered by different horrifying creatures every night unless they can survive until sunrise. In CinemaBlend’s review of Until Dawn, Eisenberg compares it to snacking on appetizers at a cocktail party — you get some satisfying bites but never feel satisfied. He gives it 3 out of 5 stars, writing:

Kristy Puchko of Mashable says the movie tries to mirror gameplay as it explores horror subgenres, but like CinemaBlend’s critic, Puchko says that despite some intriguing bits, Until Dawn as a whole is a “gloppy mess.” She continues:

Alison Foreman of IndieWire grades the Until Dawn movie adaptation a B-, saying director David F. Sandberg misunderstands what was so fun about the video game, betraying it with thin characters, weak scares and plot holes. Foreman continues:

Chase Hutchinson of IGN agrees, giving it a “Mediocre” 5 out of 10. The critic says Until Dawn is more disappointing than deadly, leaving all the promise of the horror game behind for a jumble of horror-movie re-creations. Hutchinson writes:

Nick Schager of The Daily Beast says to “Skip This,” as the film gets lazy after a few deaths by showing a montage of kills via cellphone video, and elsewhere, its concepts are so tiresome that Until Dawn raises the bar for how bad a video game movie can be. Schager continues:

While Until Dawn’s premise does give the filmmakers a way to showcase all different kinds of horror within one movie, the critics seem to think the overall effect isn’t very impressive. That said, there’s no doubt that the movie includes plenty of gory kills and fun hijinks that might just keep genre fans enthralled for 103 minutes.

If this sounds like a movie you want to check out, Until Dawn hits theaters on Friday, April 25.

Not being much of a gamer myself, I can’t personally speak to the effectiveness of director David F. Sandberg’s Until Dawn as an adaptation of its source material, but one thing that cannot be questioned is its core genre affection. At a time when horror is really clicking with audiences, the film is undeniably a love letter to scary storytelling, and it’s built in such a way as to try and capture the many different facets of it – with a central premise that allows for exploration into a wide variety of nightmares. There is a great deal of passion to it to go along with a strong foundation, but it’s also a movie that isn’t quite able to reign in its vast potential and bites off more than it can chew with its scale. The result is a feature that is enjoyable but also feels like it could have been… more.

The most apt way that I can sum up the film is as a riff on Drew Goddard’s The Cabin In The Woods with a time loop twist: a collection of characters find themselves caught in a classic horror movie setup, but instead of just dealing with a singular terror, a science-fiction plot device has them experiencing the same night over and over again with ever-changing results. The field is wide open to try and hit on a bunch of different subgenres and monsters, and there are a number of cool ideas that result in fun and freaky sequences, but the movie falls short of fulfilling the heights of its promise.

Reuniting Sandberg with Annabelle: Creation screenwriter Gary Dauberman, Until Dawn begins as a group of friends – Clover (Ella Rubin), Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-young Yoo), and Abe (Belmont Cameli) – come together on the anniversary of one of their own – Clover’s sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell) – disappearing without a trace. Gathering together at the place where Melanie was last seen, they make a last ditch effort to try and solve the mystery, and they learn about a local mining town called Glore Valley where people have been going missing.

Driving through dense woods and through a torrential rainstorm that weirdly ends right at the border of Glore Valley, the protagonists arrive at what appears to be an abandoned visitor’s center that includes a number of notable features, including a guest book with the same names written over and over again, a giant hourglass embedded in the wall, and a tack board full of missing person flyers. It’s clear from the jump that something is very wrong, but circumstances only get worse as they find themselves repeatedly being killed and living the night over and over again. Their bodies left injured and changing through the time loops, they eventually understand that they only way that they can survive is by all of them managing to live until sunup.

Until Dawn offers tastes of fun horror but never feels like a full meal.

The jewel of Until Dawn is the fact that each time the characters die and get resurrected, there is a fresh opportunity to explore a different subgenre. The first “night” is a classic slasher riff, with a hulking, masked man hacking his way through the heroes with a hefty pickaxe, but that’s just a single flavor, as subsequent go-rounds hit Clover, Max, Nina, Megan and Abe with spiritual possession, witchcraft, creepy crawlies, and plenty of body horror. It’s unlikely to scare the more desensitized of movie-goers, but there is an inherent fun in waiting to see what terror is coming around the corner next.

The problem with this is that the film finds itself getting stuck in a kind of no man’s land. It’s like going to a cocktail party when you haven’t had dinner and you’re really hungry: the various appetizers coming around on cater waiter trays provide an enjoyable variety of tastes, but the bite-sized portions don’t leave you totally satisfied or fill you up. This is best illustrated in the fact that some of the best scares in Until Dawn are presented as a montage of footage that Abe discovers on his phone in the third act.

This isn’t to say that the movie doesn’t have some really great ideas. My favorite sequence in Until Dawn finds the characters trying to outsmart the central conceit by barricading themselves in a bathroom, but the plan backfires in spectacular fashion via an unexpected source and results in copious blood splatter. Not everything lands as solidly, however, and it results in the narrative feeling scattershot.

Until Dawn is a movie in need of a scene-stealer that it never reveals.

Similar sentiments can be shared about the ensemble of protagonists. There is a strong core developed linking the characters together with the disappearance of Melanie, and there are focused efforts to establish special personalities and connections: Clover is overwhelmed with guilt about her lost sibling; Max still has feelings for Clover despite their recent breakup; Megan has a spiritual side that has her experience a supernatural connection to the horrors; and while Nina loves her friends, Abe is her new boyfriend who fits awkwardly into the dynamic. These each end up giving the protagonists their own particular roles to play that add complexity to the story, particularly as the plot thickens and new rules are thrown into the nightmare.

What’s notably missing in the mix, however, is an identifiable scene-stealer. Everybody in the cast is good, but nobody is great, and this is a film that that could use that kind of special, memorable spark – either among the protagonist ensemble or on the antagonist side. It’s one familiar genre staple that the movie doesn’t check off the list, and it hurts the overall experience.

Coming out in a year that has already served up a number of other genre gems – including but not limited to Companion, The Monkey and Sinners – Until Dawn rates more as “solid” than “good” or “great.” Its flaws are more apparent than typically desirable, but it’s a movie made with plenty of love, making it easy enough to like.

Historically, movies based on video games have been pretty hit-or-miss, but lately there have definitely been some wins on the 2025 movie calendar (for example, the box office behemoth A Minecraft Movie). And when it comes to horror movies, fans have been absolutely feasting so far this year. Therefore, it seems like the scene has been set for Until Dawn, one of the next upcoming horror flicks, and critics are hitting social media with their first reactions from early screenings.

The Until Dawn adaptation takes place in the same universe as the game but features new characters. Clover and a group of friends are searching for her missing sister when they find themselves in a deadly loop, facing a new monster each night. The only way they can escape is to survive until morning. It’s a premise that definitely deserves to get turned into a movie, and Junior Felix of The Hashtag Show has plenty of good things to say, writing:

Jeff Ewing also notes the movie’s cast, which includes Ella Rubin, who had supporting roles in The Idea of You and the Oscar-winning Anora, as well as Michael Cimino (Love, Victor), Belmont Cameli (Saved by the Bell reboot) and Odessa A'zion (Ghosts). The critic calls it a fun experience but warns that fans of the game might take issue with how the universe’s lore is treated. Ewing writes:

Bill Bria also says great things about the upcoming video game movie, saying it’s the strongest representation of the horror genre that we’ve seen this year. Bria continues:

Courtney Howard’s first reaction is similar to those above, with Until Dawn being called one of the year’s best in how it celebrates the horror genre. Howard writes:

Matt Rorabeck of the Untitled Movie Podcast says it was just “okay,” calling it a thinner version of one of the best horror movies of all time. In the critic’s words:

It sounds like fans of the Until Dawn game have something to look forward to, as most of those who are sharing their early thoughts have great things to say about David F. Sandberg’s adaptation.

We don’t have to wait too long to find out, either, as the movie is set to hit theaters on Friday, April 25.

For roughly the last half decade, director David F. Sandberg kept busy in the DC Extended Universe by directing the Shazam! movies, with the first entry coming out in 2019 and Fury of the Gods following in 2023. However, the DCEU is now over, and many of the upcoming DC movies will reside in the new DC Universe shared continuity. Sandberg, on the other hand, will be retuning to his horror roots, as evidenced by the cool video game adaptation he’s signed on to helm.

Before working on Shazam!, Sandberg made a name for himself as the director of Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, which some of you might consider to among the best horror movies of all time. Now THR has shared that his next spooky cinematic offering will be Until Dawn, based off the same-named PlayStation game released in 2015. Sandberg is also producing alongside IT screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who’s doing a pass on the Until Dawn script that Blair Butler previously wrote. Sandberg and Dauberman previously worked together on Annabelle: Creation.

For those who haven’t heard of Until Dawn, the original game is an interactive drama that follows eight adults who have to survive threats both realistic and supernatural while staying at the Blackwood Mountain lodge for a night. Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere were among the actors who portrayed the leading characters, and the game itself proved to be a critical and commercial success. A rail shooter spinoff game called Until Dawn: Rush of Blood was released in 2016, and a first-person perspective prequel called The Inpatient followed in 2018.

While the Until Dawn movie will presumably adapt the events of the game faithfully, no official plot details have been revealed yet. For now, Screen Gems, which is putting together the movie with PlayStation Productions (both of which are Sony divisions), is describing it as an “R-rated love letter to the horror genre, centering on an ensemble cast.” It’s also unclear if Malek, Panettierre or any of the original video game’s other actors will reprise their roles, though I’m more inclined to think new actors will be selected instead.

In any case, Until Dawn marks yet another way that the PlayStation brand is contributing to the film and TV space. Last year, Gran Turismo, which Netflix subscribers can stream, raced into theaters and was met with positive critical reception, including CinemaBlend’s review giving it 4 out of 5 stars. On TV, both The Last of Us and Twisted Metal were positively received and are both returning for second seasons. The former can be viewed with a Max subscription and the latter with a Peacock subscription.

We’ll continue passing along updates on Until Dawn’s progress as they come in, including where it ends up being slotted on the schedule of upcoming horror movies. For now , get the lay of this year’s cinematic land by perusing the 2024 movies calendar.

Spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods lie ahead, so read at your own risk.

While Shazam! Fury of the Gods may not have been the box office hit Warner Bros. was hoping for, a swath of fans still seems to have been pleased with the superhero romp. The film does include some cool scenes, with a moment at the end probably serving as a favorite amongst the masses. In the closing moments of the sequel, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman makes a cameo (which was spoiled by TV spots before the release). Even though the moment seems to have gone over relatively well, rumors have been floating around about Gadot being a deepfake during that sequence. Now, director David F. Sandberg is setting the record straight on that front.

It goes without saying that COVID has made film and TV production incredibly challenging, especially when it comes to big-budget productions. Honestly, even before the pandemic, blockbuster shoots could be challenging due to actor availability. Those facts, paired with the ever evolving (and sometimes frustrating) deepfake technology, are enough to make one wonder if there was some kind of facial wizardry involved in Gal Gadot’s return to the DC Extended Universe. A fan recently took to Twitter and shared photos of actress Taylor Cahill in costume as the Amazonian warrior, which seemingly prompted the deepfake suspicions. But as David F. Sandberg explained in his own tweet, Cahill served a different purpose:

Shazam! Fury of the Gods star Grace Caroline Currey confirmed to CinemaBlend that the cast didn’t actually film that cameo alongside Gal Gadot. Per the actress, the scheduling just didn’t line up for Gadot to be there with the rest of the cast. This new behind-the-scenes revelation now confirms that the filmmaker was still proactive by using Taylor Cahill for reference when plotting out coverage. It would also seem that it was Cahill’s figure that Djimon Hounsou’s Wizard melded with during Billy Batson’s romantically funny dream sequence. So all in all, viewers did indeed see the real Gadot. 

David F. Sandberg has shared a number of interesting details since the film’s release. In terms of the Diana Prince scene – which sees the Justice Leaguer resurrect Billy Batson – he dropped a real cool nugget of information. The cameo had to be shot in England and, unfortunately, he had visa issues. So Sandberg had to helm the big scene remotely, and you can see how he did it in the following social media post:

There’s no telling what lies ahead for the Shazam! franchise due to its box office intake and DC’s changing cinematic landscape. At the very least though, it would appear that David F. Sandberg and co. went the extra mile to satisfy the fans. And in doing so, he might’ve given them one of the final big-screen appearances from Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters, and the original 2019 movie is now available to stream -- alongside Wonder Woman and a number of other DCEU installments -- using an HBO Max subscription.

Warning: SPOILERS for Shazam! Fury of the Gods are ahead!

If you were lucky enough not to avoid seeing that spoilery Shazam! Fury of the Gods TV spot, then you were like likely surprised by the major cameo towards the end of the latest DC movie. After Billy Batson gave his life to save Earth from Kalypso, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman came to the Gods’ Realm to repair The Wizard’s staff, which was subsequently used to revive Billy and restore the Realm. However, it wasn’t easy shooting Gadot’s big cameo in Fury of the Gods, and director David F. Sandberg has revealed the wild way he pulled it off.

Grace Caroline Curry, who plays Mary Bromfield in both her civilian and superhero forms in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, informed CinemaBlend that logistical issues preventing the sequel’s cast from filming with Gal Gadot. So instead, a stand-in was used on set, and as David F. Sandberg shared on Twitter, he was forced to direct Gadot remotely, which you can see below.

A combination of Gal Gadot being in England and David F. Sandberg being unable to go to the country due to a “visa issue” required to deliver instructions on how he wanted her scene to be shot over a video call. It doesn’t look like it was too complicated an endeavor, with the guy on the other end of the call making sure he understood Sandberg’s instructions before feeding them back to the actress who made her DCEU debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

While it’s a shame that the other Shazam! Fury of the Gods actors weren’t able to meet Gal Gadot, at least this isn’t another instance of only a stand-in being used for a big DC superhero appearance, like when a headless Superman popped up at the end of Shazam!. This marked Gadot’s fifth appearance as Wonder Woman (if we’re counting both versions of Justice League), and followed a little over two years after she was seen in Wonder Woman 1984. Jack Dylan Grazer also seemingly let slip that we’ll see Gadot back as Diana of Themyscira in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but her appearance in The Flash was reportedly cut.

As for what the future holds in store for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman after 2023, that’s unclear. Last December, Wonder Woman 3 was scrapped, and while there is a show called Paradise Lost in development for the DC Universe franchise that will take place on Themyscira before Diana’s birth, there was no mention of Wonder Woman herself during the presentation for the Chapter One slate, a.k.a. “Gods and Monsters.” That said, DC Studios co-head James Gunn debunked the claim that Gadot’s time as Wonder Woman is done, so all we can do for now is wait for official clarification on where things stand with her.

In the meantime, be sure to read our other coverage about Shazam! Fury of the Gods, such as David F. Sandberg explaining why the Justice League wasn’t involved, and the upcoming DC movies. If you’d rather watch the released DC movies in order, stream those with an HBO Max subscription.

Minor spoilers ahead for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Over the past decade we’ve seen the comic book genre become a powerful force in the entertainment industry. Although serialized storytelling does come with some complications, like when explaining why no other heroes are typically called during solo movies. And Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg recently answered that “why no Justice League?” question for his DC sequel.

For both the MCU and DCU, audiences are often wondering why none of the heroes call for backup during their solo movies, given the formation of The Avengers and the Justice League respectively. Sometimes screenwriters have to jump through hoops to explain why crossovers aren’t happening, and the folks behind Shazam! Fury of the Gods definitely thought about why other heroes weren’t showing up (except for that cameo of course). Director David F. Sandberg addressed this in a conversation with Polygon, sharing:

There you have it. Rather than ignoring the existence of other heroes like the Justice League, Shazam 2’s story was able to stay contained thanks to the dome that the Daughter of Atlas trapped the entire city of Philadelphia under. And just like that, it was up to Billy Batson and his family to deal with the movie’s antagonists on their own.

David F. Sandberg’s comments to Polygon come from a larger conversation that he and screenwriters Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan had about their work on Shazam! Fury of the Gods. For his part, the filmmaker recently revealed that he’s taking a break from superhero movies and going back to his horror roots. 

For the DC sequel, the dome created by the Daughters of Atlas was the perfect macguffin to keep the story contained. Although there reportedly could have been a Black Adam tie-in that Dwayne Johnson shot down. Screenwriter Chris Morgan spoke more about how the dome positively impacted Shazam 2’s story, sharing:

Of course, Shazam would get a crossover moment when Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince suddenly appeared towards the end of Fury of the Gods. This was unfortunately spoiled in the trailers leading up to the movie’s release, but was cool nonetheless. It also turned heads since Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 3 was scrapped. What exactly does Gadot’s future in the franchise look like? 

It’s also unclear what’s going to happen next with Shazam considering it was filmed before DC’s new leadership came and started making sweeping changes to the shared universe. Is the Shazamily’s story over, or will they continue to appear in future blockbusters? Only time will tell.

Read our review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Read Be sure to check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a superhero movie hitting theaters at a very strange time. We know that a whole new slate of DC movies and series are on the way, and it’s unclear what, if any, future the current Shazam! franchise has there. The one thing that we do know for sure is that director David F. Sandberg is done with the series, and while he doesn’t regret making superhero films, he’s also glad to be moving on.

The first Shazam! film was a critical and audience favorite, but the sequel hasn’t done quite as well. The movie did open at number one at the domestic box office this past weekend, but with an anemic $30 million. Having said that, David F. Sandberg took to Twitter to point out that the movie has the best Rotten Tomatoes audience score of his career, even if it also has the worst critics score. Sandberg said goodbye to superhero movies on Twitter, adding...

Sandberg says he wasn't expecting the response to Fury of the Gods to be the same as the first film, and he knew the movie's opening weekend box office wouldn't be as impressive. But he did think it would be better received than it was, as he still believes he made a good film.

Critics were certainly rougher on Shazam! Fury of the Gods than they were last time. Having said that, the movie is currently sitting at 52%, which, while that is considered a "rotten" score, the first of Sandberg's directorial efforts, it also means more than half the total reviews are generally positive. 

Shazam! was never mentioned by name during the announcement of the future of the DCU, and many of the franchises that came in the previous generation of DC Films are being put on pause if not entirely canceled. If Shazam! does somehow continue, it will need a new director. 

Sandberg is clear that he enjoyed making these two movies and whatever people think of them he doesn't regret it. Having said that, there is one part of making superhero movies that the director will not miss, the endless discourse about them online. He continued...

At the end of the day money talks in Hollywood, and the box office take for Shazam! Fury of the Gods will likely be the determining factor in whether or not the franchise moves forward. 

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (starring Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, and Rachel Zegler) hits theaters this weekend. Director David F. Sandberg returns to the show to discuss some behind-the-scenes moments from making the film. We chat about Henry Cavill’s planned cameo in the first film, how his horror movie roots can influence even a big-budget superhero movie, the casting of Rachel Zegler, and more.

Also this week, we have to talk about the Oscars ceremony, one of the absolute best in recent memory. And, of course, we also have to announce this year’s Oscar Wager winner.

Stick around to hear our full spoiler-free review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but be warned we do dip into a few spoilers before moving on to this week’s BlendGame. See the timestamps below if that is something you want to avoid.

Timestamps (approx. only)

00:00:00 - Intro
00:07:05 - Director David F. Sandberg Talks Shazam! Fury Of The Gods
00:25:04 - Oscar Ceremony Review & Wager Winner Announced
00:48:48 - Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Review
01:00:44 - Shazam! 2 Spoilers
01:05:50 - Our Favorite Helen Mirren Movies
01:11:52 - Outro

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SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains major spoilers for Shazam! Fury Of The Gods. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk.

What does the future hold for Shazam in the big screen DC Universe? That is a question that doesn’t presently have a real answer. The version of the superhero played by Zachary Levi was introduced in the last few years as part of the DC Extended Universe, but that canon will soon come to an end with the birth of the new DC Universe that will be shepherded by DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. It hasn’t been made totally clear which established characters will “survive” the reboot, and that very much includes the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel.

Until answers arrive, however, at the very least we now know what direction the franchise might head in thanks to the Shazam! Fury Of The Gods mid- and post-credits scenes.

As has become standard in comic book blockbusters, the Shazam! sequel features a pair of sequences for audiences who stick around for a few minutes while the cast and filmmaker credits roll. While end credits scenes have a tendency to either be funny or teases for the future, these scenes are both, and they could definitely inform a Shazam! 3 (if it gets to happen).

What Happens In The Shazam! Fury Of The Gods End Credits Scenes

Following the flashy initial credits sequence that highlights above-the-line talent, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods launches a mid-credits bit featuring two characters with whom fans of the James Gunn DC series Peacemaker are familiar: Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee). Out in the middle of nowhere, they are walking to an abandoned gas station where they are meeting Shazam (Zachary Levi) – who is waiting for them and killing time by zapping bottles with lightning bolts.

After a bit of banter about the two knowing that his real identity is Billy Batson, they get down to business. The hero gets excited as he thinks that they are about to invite him to join the Justice League… but what he gets instead is an invitation to join the Justice Society. He’s happy about the news, but also clearly a bit deflated. Rather than being elated that he will be joining his first superhero team that doesn’t wholly consist of his foster siblings, he instead focuses in on the fact there are synonyms to “Justice” that would be available to use.

While the mid-credits scene teases heroes teaming up, the end credits is all about villains – specifically Doctor Sivana (Mark Strong) and Mister Mind (voiced by director David F. Sandberg). It begins as a callback to the first coda in Shazam! as Sivana wastes away in a prison cell with magical symbols drawn all over the walls.

At his window he hears the familiar voice of the talking extraterrestrial worm Mister Mind, and he is furious. He asks where his diminutive would-be associate has been for the last two years, and while Mind tries to dismiss the question, Sivana bluntly explains that he is a 57-year-old man waiting on the details of a vague plan. Mind counters that it takes him a long time to get places because of how short his legs are, and the Shazam! villain demands to know what the invertebrate is working on. Just as it seems like the worm is going to answer, he says that he still has one more thing he needs to do and departs – leaving Sivana to call out, “Oh, Goddamnit!”

Shazam Lives On To Fight With The Justice Society

Had everything gone according to plan for the DC Extended Universe in the last six months, we would view the Shazam! Fury Of The Gods mid-credits sequence particularly as an extension of the events from Black Adam – which introduced a big screen version of the Justice Society featuring Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). (Those who saw the film will remember that Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate ends up being killed in the third act.) In a world where Black Adam was a massive blockbuster hit, we would view the new teaser scene as a hint that a Shazam 3 would see the titular hero join the existing roster of the JSA… but that seems extremely doubtful now with the DC Universe reboot coming.

Even if Zachary Levi’s Shazam is kept in canon, it’s doubtful that anything that James Gunn and Peter Safran are planning with the DCU involves maintaining elements of Black Adam from the DCEU. That being said, that doesn’t mean there isn’t potentially a future where Shazam is still able to join the Justice Society; it would just be a Justice Society different than the one that was on the big screen in 2022. When the events that play out in director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash shake up the multiverse this summer, one of the outcomes could still be Billy Batson joining his first non-family-centric team.

This is certainly a circumstance heavy on “ifs” “coulds” and “woulds,” but the possibility does exist.

Mister Mind And Doctor Sivana Have Unfinished Business

If I were to pick one of the two teases in the end credits scenes that could eventually be satisfied in the DC Universe, my gut tells me it would be the second one. The bit with Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind is most definitely intended to be read as a meta joke – one that points at the fact that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods doesn’t follow-up the mid-credits scene from Shazam! by having the characters as the central antagonists – but it further demonstrates that they have an entertaining dynamic together, and there is plenty of comic book precedent that is waiting to be explored on the big screen.

Not only is there a lot of fun to be had in seeing Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind team up to try and destroy Shazam and the Shazamily, but the characters together open the door for us to see the first live-action incarnation of the Monster Society Of Evil (a threat that could perhaps require Shazam and his siblings to join forces with the DC Universe’s Justice Society).

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is now playing in theaters everywhere. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for the latest news about the film and where things stand with the titular character in the DC Universe. For now, you can learn about everything in the works from DC Studios with our Upcoming DC Movies guide (which includes not only DCU titles, but also DC Studios’ Elseworlds blockbusters, like The Batman: Part II.

Released during an era of DC Comics movies when the franchise on the whole was focused on producing dark and serious blockbusters, David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! proved to be a sweet and funny reprieve. The film isn’t without drama and some scares (a reflection of Sandberg’s established sensibilities and history with horror), but mostly it’s a colorful and bright adventure that succeeds thanks to the wonderful dynamics between the characters and the impressive, heart-filled emotional stakes. It hits the trifecta of having a compelling villain plot as well as strong everyday life and hero stories for the protagonist, and it all works with exciting and fun action set pieces.

Approximately four years later, DC Comics movies are now in a very different place. The run that’s been dubbed the DC Extended Universe is coming to an end this year, with plans for a new continuity to be introduced called the DC Universe – shepherded by DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. Andy Muschietti’s The Flash is incorporated into this big change, as events in the plot will end up making titanic changes in the canon, but that has left some major question marks around all of the other 2023 releases.

It’s unclear what to expect from Angel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle and James Wan’s Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, but right now it can at least be said that David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! Fury Of The Gods functions similarly in a macro sense to its predecessor: it primarily functions on its own individual wave length and succeeds because of its light energy and terrific ensemble of wonderful characters.

Picking up a few years after the events of the first film, Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and his foster siblings Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody), Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good), Eugene Choi (Ian Chen/Ross Butler) Mary Bromfield (Grace Currey), and Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand/D. J. Cotrona) are more experienced working as a superhero team, but they aren’t great at it. They attempt to stop disasters and help people, but their efforts have earned them the collective nickname “The Philadelphia Fiascos.”

Not having their act together very much has consequences when a new evil arrives on the scene. The daughters of Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and Anthea (Rachel Zegler), have long been kept prisoner and without access to magic in an alternate dimension, but they are able to seize an opportunity when the broken staff of the wizard (Djimon Hounsou) – destroyed and disregarded by Billy at the end of the first movie – is put on display at a museum. When the antagonist gods make plans to destroy the Earth as a means of making a new world for themselves, the heroes desperately search for a way to stop them.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has a familiar plot, but it finds moments and ways to be clever and creative.

The villain’s plot in Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is pretty basic stuff coming from the standard superhero blockbuster playbook, and it holds it back from doing anything particularly special or genre-changing. There are also some cool ideas that don’t get as fleshed out as they should – namely the city of Philadelphia getting trapped in a giant, magic dome – but the film all the same does find ways to get creative. Hespera and Kalypso end up using the wizard’s staff to rob most of the heroes of their abilities, giving the kids active and entertaining roles to play in the conflict; there’s an excellent running bit involving a magical pen that is a bit too good at transcribing for the heroes; and the movie delivers some wonderful mythical monster mayhem in its third act along with some terrific surprises that arrive with a fun wink (it’s worth noting that they’re definitely more fun if you haven’t seen the spoiler-y marketing for the movie).

Jack Dylan Grazer is a terrific scene-stealer, regardless of who he is sharing the screen with.

Zachary Levi is once again able to do a fantastic job channeling the spirit of a kid in the body of a superhero, and playing with the drama and comedy of Billy dealing with a pediatrician-diagnosed case of Imposter Syndrome ultimately yields a solid arc for the character. As good as he is, however, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods ends up being The Jack Dylan Grazer Show whenever the IT star is on screen. While working with a supporting role in the plot, his charisma comes from having chemistry with every character in the ensemble, and he’s front and center in some of the best scenes in the film.

While the first act of the movie is a bit rocky as Anthea is introduced as a classmate of the heroes (a twist that carries zero weight), you don’t really care about the obviousness of her being a god in disguise because of the instant way that the character clicks with Freddy and the apparent strong connection between Rachel Zegler and Jack Dylan Grazer. The young actor’s energy and enthusiasm also once again fits well among Freddy’s foster siblings – but perhaps the biggest and best shock of the film is what plays out between Freddy and the Wizard. Grazer and Djimon Hounsou get paired up when they are imprisoned together by the villains, and they have tremendous complementary timing that gets the most out of funny material.

You’ll want to see more of the Shazamily after Shazam! Fury Of The Gods.

Because of the aforementioned behind-the-scenes shakeups at DC Studios and the forthcoming birth of the DC Universe, it’s unclear what the future presently has in store for Shazam & Co. One thing that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods most certainly accomplishes, however, is inspiring the desire to see more. While the story may be overly familiar during the on-going golden age of superhero movies, the special intangibles that Shazam has as a franchise are as effective as ever in the sequel, and it still finds its own ways to feel different and engaging.

One of the most anticipated of the four upcoming DC movies is arguably Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The movie arrives four years after filmgoers were first introduced to Billy Batson, a boy gifted with godlike powers and the ability to transform into Shazam, a red suit-wearing, wise-cracking superhero played by Zachary Levi. With the marketing for the superhero movie beginning to heat up, there are more chances for potential spoilers, which is precisely what happened with a new tv spot. A newly released ad spoiled a central DC character’s cameo appearance, and the director has responded. 

What Shazam's David F. Sandberg Had To Say About The Cameo Being Spoiled

Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg took to his Twitter this week to warn fans, who may want to save some surprises for the cinema, to avoid the trailers and marketing for potential spoilers. You can see Sandberg’s tweet below:

The fans had plenty of responses to the message, as you'd imagine. One user said the marketing spoiler didn’t dissuade them at all, actually. And they also provided an enthusiastic thought on whether they'll see the movie. They wrote:

Sandberg spotted that particular reply and, in his own comment, he sent some praise in the direction of the marketing department. The director said:

One commenter retweeted the message, saying that the social media interaction between the fan and filmmaker gives a specific impression about the director's feelings:

David F. Sandberg was quick to reply, saying he was, in fact, happy it was convincing folks to see the flick. However, he did share one concern that he had. Sandberg replied to the fan:

Of course, not everyone agreed that the cameo reveal was positive. A lot of folks agreed with the Lights Out director. One Twitter user empathized with the filmmaker in the fact that such a potentially big moment wasn’t saved for theatergoers. They said:

Popular cosplayer Lis Wonder let the movie maker know she appreciated the director keeping the fan’s cinematic experience at the forefront of his mind. She said:

So Who Exactly Is The Major DCEU Alum That Cameos In Fury Of The Gods?

If you want to experience Shazam! Fury of the Gods without spoilers, this is your last chance to leave unspoiled. Okay, I’m assuming you’re gone, and we will proceed.

It’s Wonder Woman! 

How about that? Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince will have a cameo in the Shazam family's forthcoming, high-flying flick. Twitter user HecThor posted a video of the television spot, which you can see for yourself.

If the reveal of the inclusion of everyone’s favorite Amazonian warrior isn’t enough to get you pumped for the movie’s release, maybe the early film reactions will. Fury of the Gods was screened, and early responses, overall, were reasonably positive. It sounds like the Shazam! sequel probably won’t go down as one of the best superhero movies of all time, but many early viewers said it’s still worth watching for a fun time, especially if you liked the first movie. Maybe positive social media reactions will improve the movie’s chances of succeeding at the box office because early tracking estimates placed Fury of the Gods at making between $35-40 million on opening weekend, while others were more optimistic at $43-52 million. It remains to be seen if early spoilers affected the numbers, but I'd bet that many fans will see it regardless.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods flies into theaters on March 17. While fans wait for the release, they can rewatch the first movie with an HBO Max subscription or read about the things they need to remember from Shazam! beforehand. Hopefully, the early Wonder Woman reveal is enough to get people out to see the flick because David F. Sandberg said that film series could continue into the new James Gun-headed DC era -- but only if enough people check out this second entry while it’s playing on the big screen.

The first of 2023’s four upcoming DC movies is almost here, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods coming out four years after the superhero formerly known as Captain Marvel finally made his feature film debut. However, Fury of the Gods’ release comes relatively shortly after DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran announced the first round of plans for the DC Universe Chapter One, a.k.a. Gods and Monsters. As such, David F. Sandberg, the director of both Shazam! movies, has shared his honest take on the Shazam! franchise and fans can help keep it alive.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, along with The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, still reside within the DC Extended Universe continuity, whereas August’s Blue Beetle has been described by James Gunn has been “disconnected” in the DCEU. As a result of the changing DC media landscape over the next few years, a fan told Sandberg he didn’t feel like seeing Fury of the Gods because this “uncertainty” with DC is “just killing the vibe of this film.” When this fan asked if Shazam will have a role in the DC Universe, Sandberg answered on Twitter:

So if you enjoyed the first Shazam! movie and would like to see more of Billy Batson after Shazam! Fury of the Gods, make sure you see the sequel in the theater. As David F. Sandberg has heard, the World’s Mightiest Mortal could slide into the new DC Universe continuity pretty easily. Granted, there were a bunch of DC references and name-drops peppered into Shazam!, but evidently those can be reimagined to be referencing the DC Universe versions of those characters rather than the DCEU ones. Evidently this even applies to Superman’s cameo in Shazam!, as this moment was captured with a stand-in actor being framed from the neck down. That was originally supposed to be Henry Cavill’s Superman, but going forward, that could instead be the Man of Steel from the upcoming Superman: Legacy.

Basically, David F. Sandberg wants the fans to know that Zachary Levi’s version of Shazam isn’t automatically destined to be shelved after Shazam! Fury of the Gods comes out. The more people who go to see the sequel, the better the chances of Shazam! 3 being made are, along with the hero potentially popping up in other projects. Varying sources estimate that Fury of the Gods could make between $35-40 million or $43-52 million during its opening weekend, though either way, that’s less than what Shazam! pulled in during its first days in theaters. Maybe those predictions will become more optimistic as we move closer to its release.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which comes out on March 17, sees Billy Batson and his fellow superpowered siblings clashing with the daughters of Atlas, who are comprised of Helen Mirren’s Hespera, Lucy Liu’s Kalypso and Rachel Zegler’s Anthea. Make sure to stream Shazam! with an HBO Max subscription ahead of seeing the sequel, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on DC movies.

Though we’ve recently heard Dwayne Johnson speak the magic word “Shazam!” to become the mighty Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe, it’s been two and a half years since we saw the superhero Shazam, a.k.a. Billy Batson, protecting the innocent on the big screen. Fortunately, we’re only four months away from Shazam! Fury of the Gods hitting theaters, and there’s some good news to share about the upcoming DC movie in the meantime. Shazam! 2 has been completed, so naturally director David F. Sandberg celebrated the momentous occasion.

As with the first Shazam! movie, David F. Sandberg handled helming duties on the sequel, which shot from late May to late August 2021. That was followed by a lengthy post-production period, which is necessary for a movie like this that’s filled with so many special and visual effects. But as Sandberg shared on Twitter, the final touches have been put on Fury of the Gods, and the filmmaker commemorated this with a look at one of the sequel’s frames from his screening room.

Here we see Zachary Levi as Shazam hovering in the air holding a glowing staff in a sports stadium, and with the lightning behind him, it’s a good bet that is from one of Shazam! Fury of the Gods action-packed scenes. Shazam! viewers will recall that Billy Batson snapped the staff he inherited from Djimon Hounsou’s Wizard in half after sharing his powers with his foster siblings so that Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana couldn’t harness its power. It doesn’t look like this is the same staff reformed, so where did Billy get this other staff, and what kind of power does it contain?

We’ll have to wait until Shazam! Fury of the Gods is out to learn those answers, but the more important thing is that the sequel is now in the can. David F. Sandberg is now certainly entitled to take some time off, as he’s spent nearly three years putting Fury of the Gods together. Sure, in a few months Sandberg and the movie’s actors will need to take part in the press rounds for Shazam! 2, but at least the movie is now in its final form, meaning all that’s left outside of promotional work is for audiences to feast their eyes on it.

Although the Shazam! mid-credits scene teased an alliance between Sivana and the super-intelligent caterpillar called Mister Mind, Shazam! Fury of the Gods will instead see the Shazamily members facing off against the Daughters of Atlas, one of the mythological figures from whom they draw their powers. This trio consists of Helen Mirren’s Hespera, Lucy Liu’s Kalypso and Rachel Zegler’s Anthea. Djimon Hounsou will also reprise The Wizard despite the character turning to dust in the first movie. Henry Gayden, who penned the Shazam! screenplay on his own, co-wrote Fury of the Gods with Chris Morgan.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will work its magic in theaters on March 17, 2023. If you’d like to refresh yourself on what happens in the first movie, or you’d just like to watch the DC movies in order, they can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription.

Many Shazam! fans were thrown for a loop when it was announced Shazam! Fury of the Gods was moved to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s old release date: March 2023. As soon as the announcement came down, the rumor mill began churning with multiple reasons for the sequel being pushed back. A major rumor emerged that the Shazam! sequel needed reshoots after feedback from Warner Bros. and test audiences. Of course, word got back to Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg about the online chatter. Upon hearing the rumors, the director responded to those reshoot rumors.

The Shazam 2 director’s latest statement came after he responded to the film’s latest delay. Just like his release delay response, David F. Sandberg hopped on his Instagram Story to do a Q-and-A session with his followers where shoot down any confusion about the sequel being “retooled.” The Lights Out director dispelled any reshoot rumors by giving fans an update on the sequel’s post-production progress.

So, a change in release date doesn’t equate to the upcoming film is a bad film. As Sandberg pointed out, extra time doesn’t mean more footage needs to be shot before it arrives in 2023. At this point, working on color correction and visual effects signifies the DC film is close to being done, which is good for its new release date. David F. Sandberg couldn’t be happier about March 2023 as it gives him more time to deliver a completed film with all the bells and whistles to audiences.

The upcoming sequel will see Shazam (played by Zachary Levi) and his superhero family fight against new enemies – the daughters of Atlas (played by Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu). Levi isn’t the only one returning to the DC franchise as Meagan Good, Adam Brody, and Ross Butler are back as the superhero versions of Billy Batson’s foster siblings. Viewers already have a preview of what’s to come from the Shazam! Fury of the God trailer.

While moviegoers must wait for Shazam and his superhero family in action, there’s more information to learn about Shazam 2 before its release date. There are interviews with the cast to keep them occupied until its theatrical release. Shazam! Fury of the Gods will arrive in movie theaters on March 17, 2023. The Shazam! sequel is one of multiple upcoming DC movies, including Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, set to premiere over the next year.

The DC Extended Universe is known for its twists both on and off the screen, and that has certainly been the case over the last month. During this time Warner Bros. scrapped the Batgirl movie, while also delaying the sequels of both Shazam! and Aquaman. And now the directors of those upcoming DC movies, James Wan and David F. Sandberg, have responded to these delays.

While anticipation is building for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, both of their journeys to theaters just got a little bit longer. This is obviously a bummer for the hardcore DC fans out there who might be worried about the state of the shared universe. James Wan shared his thoughts about the delay to Aquaman 2, accompanied with some epic concept art of what we’ll be seeing when the project finally hits theaters in December of 2023. As he posted on Instagram,

There you have it. It looks like James Wan has found the silver lining in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s latest delay. Because now the movie will be a big Christmas movie release, just as the original movie was back in 2018. This decision has the potential to be a box office win for Warner Bros., although it means we have well over a year before finally diving back into that corner of the DCEU. 

While Aquaman 2’s delay might be disappointing, the concept art that accompanied James Wan’s post will definitely help buoy excitement over the upcoming movie starring Jason Momoa. Just like its predecessor, it looks like the DC flick will be a colorful adventure through Wan’s imagination. And he’s since again using cutting edge technology to give the cast a sense of underwater weightlessness. 

Of course, that’s not the only upcoming DC movie which unfortunately got delayed by Warner Bros. Shazam! Fury of the Gods was in the same boat, and I’ve truly lost count of how many times that blockbuster has changed release dates over the last few years. But like James Wan, director David F. Sandberg also found the silver lining in his movie’s delay, posting on Twitter:

Points were made. While DC fans will have to wait a few more months to see the Shazam! sequel, this might have been a smart move for the project’s box office performance. Prior to this delay it was going to compete with Avatar 2 this coming December. Considering how massive James Cameron’s movie is expected to be, and how many big theaters it’ll be occupying, David F. Sandberg seems to be happy that Shazam! Fury of the Gods will have more time and space to thrive. 

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently expected to arrive in theaters on March 17th, 2023 and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will follow suit on December 25th 2023. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

It’s become exceedingly rare to see more than one major film release hit theaters on a given weekend. Even the highest profile blockbuster is going to see its box office take cut by another major franchise or popular IP, and since no studio wants that, they all tend to stay out of each other’s way. However, unless something changes in the next few months, we’re going to come pretty close to seeing direct franchise competition when Avatar 2 and Shazam! 2 come out within only a few days of each other. But Shazam! director David F. Sandberg isn’t that worried about Avatar.

As things currently stand, the highly anticipated, and long awaited Avatar: The Way of Water is set to open in theaters on December 16, while Shazam: Fury of the Gods will follow less than a week later on December 21. While Shazam! is certainly in a better spot than the Aquaman sequel was, it’s as close as we’ve seen major releases get in the modern era, but as David F. Sandberg recently told Slashfilm, he believes there’s plenty of room for both movies to be successful. The director said…

David F. Sandberg is correct in his assessment. The original Avatar opened on essentially the same weekend back in 2009 that Avatar 2 will occupy this year. Five days later, on the Wednesday before Christmas, the same date Shazam 2 will open, saw the release of another sequel, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squakqual. The Chipmunks movie would go on to gross nearly $220 million domestically which, while it was obviously a fraction of what the original Avatar would do, is significantly more than the $140 million that was grossed by the first Shazam!. 

The question is likely whether Shazam! and Avatar are different enough. Certainly, the Chipmunks movie appealed to kids, most of whom would have been too young for the more mature Avatar. Shazam!, being on the lighter side of DC, probably also has a younger, and therefore broader, audience than Avatar, but the crossover between the two is still probably greater, as they’ll likely both be PG-13 movies. There were some elements of the first Shazam! that were not young kid friendly.

Of course, there’s also the question of just how well Avatar: The Way of Water will actually do. There’s a modern view of the first movie that, despite its box office dominance, Avatar had little cultural staying power, and thus not as many people will care about the sequel. Although, even if that’s the case, Avatar 2 doesn’t need to become the highest grossing movie of all time, like the first Avatar in order to be successful, or even become the highest grossing movie of the year.

What is clear is that both Avatar and Shazam! can be successful, despite being such direct competition. If they are both successful, perhaps we’ll start to see studios moving their tentpole releases closer together. 

Ahead of her film debut as Maria Vasquez in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, it was announced that Rachel Zegler would star in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. However, we still don’t know who she’s playing in the sequel to 2019’s Shazam!, which is something director David F. Sandberg decided to have a little fun with earlier today. The Fury of the Gods filmmaker shared some fake casting news that briefly had us going, and Zegler had a wonderful response to this.

On his Twitter page, David F. Sandberg shared a video of himself voting in a fan poll speculating on Rachel Zegler’s role in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, with the options including Wonder Girl, Hawkgirl, Tawky Tawny and “some random.” Sandberg looked over at a totally real script for Fury of the Gods, then went back to the poll to vote for Tawky Tawny, the anthropomorphic tiger who’s been part of Shazam lore for decades. See for yourself!

While at first glance, it might seem like David F. Sandberg was dropping some major character information, upon looking more closely at the script page, this doesn’t appear to be the real deal. Having a Rachel Zegler-played Tawky Tawny in human form promoting Kellog’s cereals, only for Jack Dylan Grazer’s Freddy Freeman to counter that they live in a General Mills household, reads as way too ridiculous, which is saying a lot for a movie featuring adolescents who can turn into superheroes by saying a literally magic word. There’s also the fact that along with commenting “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA,” Zegler also said this to Sandberg:

So for now, we’re still in the dark on how Rachel Zegler fits into the Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ picture. The only clue we have to work with is that she’ll be a daughter of Atlas, one of the legendary figures from whom Billy Batson and the other members of the Shazam Family gain their special abilities. That said, it remains to be seen whether Zegler’s character will cause trouble with her sisters, Helen Mirren’s Hespera and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso, or if she’ll be a force for good. Either way, don’t get your hopes up of seeing her turn into a walking and talking tiger.

Although the Shazam! mid-credits scene set the stage for Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana to team up with the super-intelligent caterpillar called Mister Mind, Strong informed CinemaBlend that he will not appear in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Instead, two of Atlas’ daughters will be our chief antagonists. Beyond that, specific story details for Fury of the Gods are being kept under lock and key. That said, another way the sequel will stand out from its predecessor is through Grace Fulton playing both Mary Bromfield’s human and superhero forms, as opposed to Michelle Borth returning to play the latter.

Originally scheduled for July 2, 2023, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has now been moved up to December 16 of this year as part of the latest DC Films scheduling shakeup. Take a look through the upcoming DC movies lineup to see what else is on the horizon in this corner of the superhero movie market.

There’s a lot of upcoming DC movies on the way, but due to a variety of factors (most of which related to COVID-19), many of Warner Bros.’ large-scale productions have seen delays in the past couple of years. Thankfully, a ton of audiences just had the chance to see the new take on The Batman this weekend, but unfortunately the studio just announced a big shake up for DC’s film slate. 

Fans are going to have to wait longer for a number of films including The Flash and Aquaman 2, but on the other hand, Shazam! Fury of the Gods actually is coming sooner than previously scheduled. The sequel starring Zachary Levi is now hitting theaters this December rather than next summer. Here’s director David F. Sandberg’s reaction via Twitter: 

Sandberg’s comments address the fact that Shazam! Fury of the Gods will now open on the same day as James Cameron’s Avatar 2 instead of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was knocked off its Christmas season date for spring 2023. The original 2009 Avatar famously broke box office records to become the highest grossing movie of all time. Nearly fifteen years later, Avatar remains on top of global lifetime grosses (per Box Office Mojo), even though Avengers: Endgame beat it out for a moment there.

Since it’s been so long since an Avatar movie was released, it’s tough to tell how Shazam! versus the Avatar sequel will fare when they presumably go head-to-head during the holiday season slot, but given James Cameron’s track record, the DC movie could have some stiff competition. 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom would have proved to be a more well-matched contender considering Jason Momoa’s 2018 outing made over $1.1 billion worldwide when the James Wan film came out just ahead of Christmas. The first Shazam! comparatively made $365 million worldwide during spring 2019. But perhaps the flip-flop will help each film in their own ways. David F. Sandberg also reacted to the shift with these words: 

2019’s Shazam! was set during Christmas time despite being released in the springtime and as Sandberg quipped, it looks like something similar is going to happen with his sequel. Fury of the Gods was shot as a summer movie, but it will now come out during holiday times. 2022’s slate following the recent and successful launch of The Batman will be DC League of Super-Pets on July 29, Black Adam now on October 22 instead of the summer and Shazam! Fury of the Gods closing out the year for the DCEU. 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will hit theaters on March 17, 2023 instead of December, The Flash moved from this November to next summer, June 29, 2023. Here’s hoping these release dates stick. Each of these movies have had more than their share of shifts as is.  

Although we’ll be revisiting the overall Shazam mythology later this year in Black Adam, the sequel to 2019’s Shazam!, officially titled Shazam! Fury of the Gods, is over a year away from release. But don’t that means the next Shazam! movie isn’t making steady progress. Quite the opposite, as director David F. Sandberg has shared a thrilling update about how things are coming along.

Like its predecessor, Shazam! Fury of the Gods will be a VFX-heavy affair, which comes with the territory when you’re delving into one of the magical corners of the DC universe. Well, those VFX shots, and the movie as a whole, will be the visually crispest of David F. Sandberg’s filmography, as he revealed in one of his recent Instagram posts:

Making the jump to proper 4K is a big step for David F. Sandberg, as in the past, he’s had to upscale to that visual quality. For Shazam! Fury of the Gods, he started from the jump with 4K vision in mind, and the final product will look better through that particular lens than if it was converted into 4K after the fact. With Fury of the Gods dated for summer 2023, Sandberg and his postproduction team have plenty of time to make sure that the sequel looks the best it can be.

What we initially just called Shazam! 2 was greenlit just days after Shazam! was released in April 2019, with the first movie being met with mostly positive critical reception and ending its theatrical run with $366 million in its worldwide coffers. David F. Sandberg and Henry Gayden were quickly brought back to resume their respective directing and writing duties, and the sequel’s official title was unveiled at the first DC FanDome. Shazam! Fury of the Gods finally commenced principal photography in late May 2021 and wrapped up at the end of August.

Although Shazam!’s mid-credits scene teased an alliance between Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana and the super-intelligent caterpillar known as Mister Mind, Strong told CinemaBlend that he will not appear in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Instead, the sequel will see Billy Batson and the rest of the Shazam Family crossing paths with three daughters of Atlas, one of the legendary figures from whom they draw their powers. Helen Mirren’s Hespera and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso look like they’ll fill the main antagonist roles, but it remains to be seen where the allegiances of Rachel Zegler’s unnamed character lie. 

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will work its magic in theaters on June 2, 2023, so until then, keep checking back with CinemaBlend for updates on how it’s coming along. It is the second of the upcoming DC movies slated for next year, with Blue Beetle (which has shifted from an HBO Max exclusive to a theatrical release) following on August 18.

Like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe is expanding into streaming through HBO Max. The platform debuted Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Peacemaker series will follow along with John Cena’s Christopher Smith after the events of The Suicide Squad, and the Leslie Grace-led Batgirl movie will be an HBO Max exclusive movie. However, Shazam! director David F. Sandberg had a funny response when someone suggested that Shazam! Fury of the Gods should go straight to HBO Max.

Right now, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is slated for a summer 2023 theatrical release, arriving a little over four years after its predecessor. However, when it was suggested that the sequel be moved up to December 2022, yet debut on HBO Max due to Shazam!’s “OK box office” and how long it’s been since that movie came out, David F. Sandberg responded with the below gif on Twitter:

Futurama’s Fry narrowing his eyes has become a classic gif, and while it’s often used when one is suspicious or unsure about something, it also works nicely as an expression of disapproval. That definitely seems to be the case here with David F. Sandberg, as he doesn’t sound jazzed about Shazam! Fury of the Gods going directly to streaming. Granted, this was just an idea from someone online rather than word coming in that Warner Bros. is actually considering moving Fury of the Gods to HBO Max, but either way, Sandberg is strictly Team Theatrical on this one.

It’s worth remembering that in addition to being a sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is also loosely tied to Black Adam, because like in the comics, Dwayne Johnson’s iteration of that character also gained his powers from the Wizard Shazam. Also taking into account how it’s likely that Johnson’s Black Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam will clash one day, it makes sense to keep this corner of the DCEU in the theatrical realm rather than split up the properties. Besides, wait long enough after Fury of the Gods’ run on the big screen, and you can count on it being made available on HBO Max.

While specific story details about Shazam! Fury of the Gods are still being kept a closely-guarded secret, the sequel will see Billy Batson and his fellow superpowered foster siblings tangling with the daughters of Atlas, one of the legendary figures from whom the Shazam Family members draw their special abilities. Helen Mirren’s Hespera and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso will be the chief antagonists, though it remains to be seen if their yet-to-be-identified sister, played by West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler, will join them in causing trouble. Fury of the Gods began filming on May 26, 2021 and wrapped up on August 31.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will work its magic in theaters on June 2, 2023, but on the slim chance Warner Bros. does decide to move it to HBO Max, we’ll let you know about that. Don’t forget to also look through our upcoming DC movies guide to learn what else the DCEU has on the horizon.

The DC Extended Universe is still growing, and fans should learn more about its future at this year's DC Fandome. Many are hoping to see more from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and Shazam! Fury of The Gods, which has just completed filming. Shazam! director David F. Sandberg celebrated the film’s wrap with a clapboard pic and a seriously torn up set. The original movie was a great surprise and became one of the most successful entries in the DCEU. However, Sandberg recently assured fans that he won’t make a key mistake that was evident in the first movie.

It's understandable that David F. Sandberg would want to improve things in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Whenever a filmmaker returns for a sequel, they typically aim to do things differently. However, the mistake Sandberg recently referred to wasn't one that related to the film's actual narrative. The director took to Instagram to show fans his commitment to adding a cosmetic element to Fury of the Gods that its predecessor lacked. Here’s the post:

Many were probably a little surprised when they saw that 2019's Shazam! lacked DC's computer animated intro, which depicts the members of the Justice League. While it was a small detail, David F. Sandberg seems more than committed to brining it in this time around, and you can understand why. The intro, which plays before a number of DC productions, is a tradition at this point, not unlike how Marvel Studios' intro and fanfare has become a staple for moviegoers over the years.

Despite the director's plans, though, he does bring up a good point about the logo. Given that the Shazam! movie is still a few years away, the intro could indeed be updated ahead of the movie's theatrical release. Nevertheless, you can't help but appreciate that David F. Sandberg is at least trying to maintain some creative continuity within the Zachary Levi-led sequel.

Intro aside, we do know for sure that the movie will include some other major cosmetic changes. For instance, Shazam! Fury of the Gods will feature new costumes for Zachary Levi and the Marvel family -- and they look incredible! Shazam himself, Zachary Levi, is just as excited as everyone else about the new costumes and has occasionally taken some time to hype up the movie, which is set to feature some pretty powerful characters.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will surely have some surprises in store and hopefully, some cameos from other characters in the DCEU. As of right now, it would appear that at least one familiar face is set to return for the movie, and it's sure to get fans excited. There have also been some hints at a Black Adam nod in the film, indicating we could see The Rock and Zachary Levi's characters together at some point. Regardless of the DC intro that's included, it'll be exciting to see what the new film has in store.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods opens in theaters on June 2, 2023.

Just days after the Zachary Levi-led Shazam! hit theaters in April 2019, New Line Cinema and DC decided to greenlight a sequel. While it took a little longer to get cameras rolling on said sequel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shazam! 2, officially titled Shazam! Fury of the Gods, finally began principal photography on May 26. Now as August comes to a close, director David F. Sandberg has announced that the next cinematic Shazam adventure has finished filming.

Like he did on the first Shazam! movie, David F. Sandberg has periodically shared teasing photos of the work being done on Shazam! Fury of the Gods over the last several months though. Today, though, he opted for what’s become one of the classic ways to commemorate the end a movie’s production: taking a picture of a clapboard. Here’s what Sandberg posted on Twitter:

It’s simple, but it gets the job done. But wait, there’s more! Over on Instagram, David F. Sandberg marked Shazam! Fury of the Gods filming by instead sharing a picture on one of the sets, which appears to be a room in a regular household destroyed by superhero and/or supervillain antics.

After a little over three months of shooting, Shazam! Fury of the Gods now moves to the postproduction phase, where the movie is edited together, visual effects are inserted, etc. However, with reshoots becoming more common in Hollywood blockbusters, it’s possible some time has been allotted for David F. Sandberg and other members of the cast and crew to reunite later down the line to record some extra footage. After all, Fury of the Gods doesn’t arrive until summer 2023, so it’s not like they’re rushing to get this movie completed.

While no specific plot details for Shazam! Fury of the Gods have been revealed yet, we do have a loose idea of what to expect. For one thing, rather than Asher Angel’s Billy Batson fighting the forces of evil like he did for most of the first movie, he’ll be accompanied by the other members of the Shazam Family, i.e. his now-superpowered foster siblings Freddy, Mary, Darla, Eugene and Pedro. We’ll also reunite with Djimon Honsou’s Wizard Shazam, who was believed to have died in the first movie, so either a flashback, hallucination or resurrection is in the cards.

As for new faces, we’ll meet Helen Mirren’s Hespera, Lucy Liu’s Kalypso and Rachel Zegler’s yet-to-be-named character, all of whom are the antagonistic daughters of Atlas, one of the ancient figures the Shazam heroes derive their powers. Alas, for those of you who were looking forward to a Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind teacup after seeing the Shazam! mid-credits scene, Mark Strong told CinemaBlend in May that he will not appear in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. I guess we’ll have to wait until the hypothetical Shazam! 3 for that plot thread to be followed up on.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will work its magic in theaters on June 2, 2023. If you’re curious about what else in coming down the DC Extended Universe pipeline, look through our upcoming DC Comics movies guide.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (or Shazam 2) has kicked off production under the watchful eye of director David F. Sandberg. So far, specific plot details are mostly being kept under wraps, but the filmmaker has shared a few teases with fans. Recently, he shared a cool video that teased the new costume Zachary Levi will be sporting in the DC sequel. And now, Sandberg has gone ahead and unveiled not only Levi’s new costume but those of the entire Marvel family as well!

David F. Sandberg is well aware that things can leak ahead of official announcements or reveals. Believe it or not, images of Zachary Levi’s new costume actually made their way to the internet a few weeks ago. The idea of leaks is apparently what led Sandberg to take the initiative and drop the official looks for the entire Marvel family in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Check out the awesome new outfits and the returning cast in the Twitter post down below:

The Marvel family’s outfits from the original Shazam! movie were cool enough, but these seem a bit more refined and sleeker. Despite this, the colors continue to pop, and the suits are still more than comic book-accurate. All in all, David F. Sandberg and his team found a great way to update the costumes for Fury of the Gods. Even if Zachary Levi can’t help but make jokes about the fact that the new suit still doesn’t allow him to use the bathroom that easily.

One thing fans might notice is that Mary Marvel is no longer played by Michelle Borth. Instead, Grace Fulton, who played Mary in her non-powered form, has now been upgraded to the superhero role. However, David F. Sandberg noted that there’s still one key way he’s distinguished her superhero form from her civilian counterpart:

I mean… you really can’t argue with the Wonder Woman logic, there. Not many people seem to realize that she and Diana Prince are one in the same. So this should indeed work when it comes to Mary Marvel.

When fans see the Marvel Family in action again, they won’t be facing off with Mark Strong’s Doctor Sivana. Instead, it would appear they’re going to be going toe to toe with Helen Mirren’s Hespera and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso, both daughters of the Greek god Atlas. So it pretty much goes without saying that our heroes are going to need those new duds as they do battle.

These photos are more than enough to get fans hyped up for what’s to come in the next chapter of the Shazam! saga. It’s going to be fun to see the entire family back together and fighting the good fight on the big screen.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods hits theaters on June 2, 2023.

In the final moments of David F. Sandberg's Shazam!, fans get what could be called a half-cameo. Superman appears in the last shot of the movie, blowing the mind of Jack Dylan Grazer's Freddy Freeman, but rather than being Henry Cavill appearing as the Man of Steel, the character is only shown from the neck down. It's a cute moment that fans should appreciate – if not especially in light of the fact that the Kryptonian is definitely not going to be making a "full" appearance in the upcoming Shazam! Fury Of The Gods.

Being an active social media user, David F. Sandberg recently addressed some fan questions about the upcoming sequel on his personal Instagram account, and one of the queries was in regard to a potential Superman cameo in Shazam 2. The original post was written in Swedish, and so the Swedish filmmaker responded in kind – though in doing so simultaneously created a puzzle for followers who don't speak the language:

If you throw "Du kommer bli så besviken når du oversetter det har" into an internet translator, the result is:

If we are arguing semantics, that's technically not a denial that Henry Cavill will make an appearance as Superman in Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, but it's also not exactly a challenge to register what he's really saying here. Sorry, folks: it's not happening.

For what it's worth, the upcoming Shazam 2 is already working with an excellent ensemble cast, so it's unlikely that Superman's presence will be specifically missed. In addition to returning stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Michelle Borth, Ian Chen, and D.J. Cotrona, the upcoming sequel is also set to feature Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler – all three of them playing daughters of the god Atlas.

As for Henry Cavill's Superman, the future can be described as opaque. Fans just recently had the opportunity to watch the character in action a few months ago in Zack Snyder's Justice League, but at present there are no plans for him to appear in an upcoming DC Extended Universe title. Right now it appears that the Man of Tomorrow's next big screen appearance is in the hands of screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates and producer J.J. Abrams, and signs are pointing to the project recasting the character with a black actor.

While we continue to wait for future news about Superman, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is moving right along. Following COVID-19 related delays, production on the sequel has begun, and Warner Bros. has scheduled it to be released on June 2, 2023.

The journey to getting Shazam! 2, a.k.a. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, is lasting longer than expected, but last week, the DC Comics sequel finally began filming last week. Just like in the original Shazam!, Zachary Levi will play the superpowered form of Asher Angel’s Billy Batson, but he won’t look quite the same as last time. That’s because the actor is wearing a new costume, as director David F. Sandberg teased in a new video.

Taking to Twitter, David F. Sandberg showed off Zachary Levi’s new Shazam costume in all its glory. Or rather, that would be the case if someone had set up proper lighting. Watch below to see what I mean:

Clearly David F. Sandberg and the rest of the Shazam! Fury of the Gods team aren’t ready just yet to give the public an official look at Zachary Levi’s new Shazam costume. That said, it’s amusing this video arrives just hours after Jamie Lee Curtis shared silhouetted photos she took of her Borderlands costars, and I can’t help but wonder if Sandberg’s video is directly poking fun at that. Or maybe this is making fun of when Robert Pattinson was first shown in the Batman costume, as that video was bathed in shadows and moody red lighting.

Regardless, Billy Batson will be wearing new superhero duds upon saying the magic word in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. But let’s not forget that he’s not alone in the fight against evil, as in the first Shazam! movie, Billy shared his incredible powers with his foster siblings Freddy, Mary, Eugene, Darla and Pedro. It’s unclear if their costumes have also been redesigned for Fury of the Gods, though I suspect they have been if the filmmakers are wanting the Shazam Family members to continue matching.

Originally Shazam 2! was supposed to begin filming in mid-2020 so it’d be ready for an April 2022 release, but like so many film and TV productions, those plans got thrown out the proverbial window by COVID-19. So instead, the sequel’s title was announced at last year’s DC FanDome, and on May 26, principal photography kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with David F. Sandberg directing again, Henry Gayden return to write Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ script.

No specific plot details have been revealed for the next Shazam! movie yet, but the story will involve the heroes crossing paths with the sinister daughters of Atlas, one of the legendary figures from whom they derive their abilities. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu have been cast as Hespera and Kalypso, respectively, while the identity of their sister, played by West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler, hasn’t been revealed yet. And despite the Shazam! mid-credits scene teasing an alliance between Mark Strong’s Thaddeus Sivana and Mister Mind, Strong recently confirmed to CinemaBlend that Sivana will not appear in Fury of the Gods. So I suppose that means we’ll have to wait until Shazam! 3 to see these two cause trouble, if at all. Then there’s the matter of when Zachary Levi’s Shazam and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam will finally clash.

For now, assuming there aren’t more setbacks, we can count on Shazam! Fury of the Gods storming into theaters on June 2, 2023. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news about the sequel and other upcoming DC Comics movies.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the sequel to 2019's Shazam!, will feature the return of several main characters. Zachary Levi (Shazam), Asher Angel (Billy Batson) and Jack Dylan Grazer (Freddy Freeman) are just a few of the familiar faces set to appear in the upcoming film. This time, they'll be joined by a handful of new ones, including Lucy Liu.

In a hilarious reveal, director David F. Sandberg reacted to Lucy Liu’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods casting on Twitter with a single image.

This, in my opinion, is exactly the correct reaction you should have when learning that Lucy Liu is going to be in your movie.

The excitement is more than warranted. After all, the famous actress is known for countless films. This includes Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Vol. 1, McG’s Charlie’s Angels, and Claire Scanlon’s Set It Up, and the list goes on. That’s not to mention her TV work, such her stint as Joan Watson on CBS’s modern take on Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, or her time on Ally McBeal as Ling Woo. For the latter, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will be Lucy Liu’s first superhero film. That’s not to say she can’t fight like a superhero: remember the time Liu duked it out with Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. The always-capable actress did those insane stunts herself. Or maybe you recall her various showdowns with the bad guys in Charlie’s Angels, where she left everyone in the dust. Now that we know she’ll be playing the villain Kalypso in Fury of the Gods, we can only hope she’ll be in the center of the action.

The original Shazam! movie was also directed by David F. Sandberg. The movie told the story of Billy Batson, a 14-year-old foster kid who, thanks to an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou), gets the ability to turn into an adult superhero (played by Zachary Levi). The catch? Billy still thinks and acts like a teenager. That’s all well and good until Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (played by Mark Strong), the wizard’s earlier pick to be his champion, emerges looking for vengeance.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is reportedly expected to start filming this, with a theatrical release date of June 2, 2023. And Lucy Liu isn’t the only new addition: Dame Helen Mirren will appear as Hespera, the sister to Liu’s Kalypso. If only we could make this movie appear sooner by saying "Shazam!" As always, stay locked on CinemaBlend for updates on this sequel, and other DC Comics movies that are on the way.

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Warner Bros’ superhero universe has been building itself into an expansive franchise with interconnected threads over the years, but more often than not, it doesn’t feel like the filmmakers are necessarily communicating about the family of heroes being presented on screen. Although, David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! did share some nudges to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman a la Marvel Studios films.

In anticipation of Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League coming to HBO Max in March, some fans had questions for the Shazam! director about how he connected the 2019 movie to Snyder’s other DCEU movies. David F. Sandberg responded by explaining on Twitter that he'd never actually spoken to or met Snyder before adding his Easter eggs within the film, but he did want to pay homage to their roots and interconnectivity into the shared universe. In his words:

David F. Sandberg decided to go by Logan rules for Shazam!, imagining that the events of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman had really happened prior to Billy Batson’s origin story, but there was also the side of the world where action figures and such were made as a result of these occurrences. It definitely makes sense and grounds the other films in the “reality” of the DCEU. When you think about it, if Superman really did roam the skies, we would most certainly have merchandise in his image, even if he wasn’t necessarily on the side of the public as a whole.

It’s a good pull and those little callbacks definitely enriched Shazam! for audiences, especially for those unaware of Zachary Levi’s hero. And as Sandberg recently revealed, Henry Cavill was originally set to make an appearance in the movie, but plans changed halfway during filming and just Superman (without Henry Cavill’s head) popped up at the end of the movie.

With the MCU’s prominence in the film world, audiences are trained to look out for Easter eggs and other connective tissues to the larger comic book franchises in play. Fox’s X-Men universe was early to the party, and Hugh Jackman’s last hurrah as Wolverine in Logan certainly did provide a wink or two to the main universe whilst painting a very different world for the character in his final days.

Henry Cavill will return as Superman in the Snyder Cut, which comes to HBO Max on March 18. Use this link to sign up for a subscription. David F. Sandberg is currently prepping to make Shazam: Fury of the Gods, the sequel to Shazam! that is expected to hit theaters on June 2, 2023. Check out the DCEU’s full lineup of upcoming movies here on CinemaBlend.

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The DC Extended Universe has had a unique life, full of peaks and valleys. After a rocky start, Warner Bros. seemed hit its stride with director-driven blockbusters like Aquaman and Shazam! The latter project was helmed by David F. Sandberg, and featured a brief cameo for Superman. Henry Cavill himself was noticeably absent, but it turns out he was originally supposed to appear in the origin story.

Shazam! is set in the DCEU, but it didn't feature any major crossover moments. The blockbuster's fun coda saw Superman visiting Freddy and Shazam at school, although we only saw the Man of Steel from the chest down. This was obviously done since Henry Cavill didn't film, although David F. Sandberg recently revealed that he was indeed hoping to get the star in the role. As the filmmaker put it,

FOMO alert. It looks like Superman's brief appearance in Shazam! was originally meant to include Henry Cavill in the role, even halfway through filming the DCEU blockbuster. Unfortunately it fell through, and David F. Sandberg had to find a creative solution to include that much discussed sequence.

David F. Sandberg's comments come from his personal Twitter. The filmmaker regularly uses social media to directly communicate with the fans, whether it be answering questions, shooting down rumors, or simply poking fun at anticipation for Shazam!'s sequel. This time he revealed some mind-blowing information that has long been questioned questioned: Henry Cavill was originally supposed to film his cameo.

The DCEU, including Shazam!, is currently available to re-watch on HBO Max. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

While the filmmaker didn't offer a reason for Henry Cavill dropping out of Shazam!, it does give new context to the movie's final sequence. The scene is a great ending to the movie, but the elephant in the room (or cafeteria) is definitely the lack of Cavill. Perhaps there was another mustache-related incident that stopped this collaboration. As a reminder, you can see the scene below.

Despite Henry Cavill's absence, Shazam!'s ending seemingly confirmed that Zachary Levi's character met the Man of Steel. We didn't get to see this first crossover, but hopefully we'll be able to see these mega powerful heroes on the big screen together sometime in the future. It's unclear if Warner Bros. has any plans to give the Justice League franchise another try, so exactly when this pairing might happen is a mystery.

Regardless, there are some very exciting things coming up for Shazam in the DCEU. The first of these is Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which will be the first sequel in the franchise. Additionally, fans are awaiting the hero's eventual conflict with Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam. Only time will tell exactly when their inevitable battle will begin.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently expected to arrive in theaters on June 2, 2023. In the meantime, check out our 2021 release list to plan your next movie experience.

While it's still mostly unclear whether the DC Universe is an active concern on the big screen or not, films based on DC Comics characters are certainly still popular and we have several new projects on the way that have fans excited. However, whatever happens with Wonder Woman or the Suicide Squad in their upcoming sequels, Dwayne Johnson has already put the DC Universe on notice that Black Adam is coming, and he's looking to take his place at the most powerful. However, one man is willing to stand in his way, it's Shazam!...'s director.

The director of both Shazam! and the upcoming sequel, David F. Sandberg, posted an image of himself as a counter argument to an Instagram pic recently posted by Dwayne Johnson, that showed the actor in full training mode for Black Adam. The Rock looked even bigger and more muscular than usual. He also claimed that the "hierarchy of power" within the DC Universe was about to change. Sandberg's response was, maybe slightly less menacing, but honestly pretty on brand for himself, and the Shazam! movies.

While Shazam! was a film that clearly took place within the existing DC film universe, the movie took a decidedly lighter tone with the material. It's perhaps difficult to make a "dark and gritty" film about a kid who magically transforms into a grown up superhero, so that decision made sense. And Shazam! didn't lack for more superhero action either. Overall, the idea certainly seemed to work as Shazam! put up some solid box office numbers. A sequel Shazam!: Fury of the Gods has also been announced.

Of course, the fact that Shazam! had a bit more humor than your average DC movie does create some interesting questions about Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson's character has been traditionally seen as a arch enemy of Shazam, and the expectation is that the two will come up against each other somewhere down the line, perhaps in the Shazam! sequel, perhaps in a movie following that one. Does that mean Black Adam will strike a similar tone? We haven't seen much indication of that. Of course, The Rock is perfectly good at being funny when there's a requirement for that.

Still, this guy doesn't look like he's planning to be very funny. Here's the original image that spawned David F. Sandberg's response.

Black Adam is getting ready to start production early next year. The film was originally set to open in December of next year but due to the massive production delay that certainly won't happen. A release in early 2022 seems likely at this point, assuming that we don't see any more significant delays of course. When Shazam and Black Adam will finally clash, we'll just have to wait to find out.

After a number of changes in the release calendar last week, including No Time To Die and Fast & Furious 9 nabbing slots in spring 2021, Warner Bros has decided to shift much of its upcoming DCEU slate. This includes the developing Shazam! sequel moving to summer 2023 from late 2022, and the news immediately left fans worried about the predominantly young cast going through growth spurts.

The Shazam! director David F. Sandberg responded to fans’ concerns with a reassuring update and a bit of fun. In his words on Twitter:

The second Shazam! was on track to begin filming at the top of 2021 and according to Sandberg their production schedule is not being affected by the release date shifts. Many film sets are currently back at work and Shazam! Fury of the Gods will reportedly start up as scheduled, even if that’s quite ahead of schedule for the DC release.

For movies in the DC universe, it's important for the studio to space out releases so they don’t compete with one another or give us, the audience, fatigue (especially because the titles will be arriving amidst an even bigger wave of Marvel releases coming our way in the near future. The franchise could even benefit from the second Shazam! film not to be constrained by tight deadlines if all goes as planned. Even so, Sandberg is having fun with fans’ concerns over the cast growing up:

We’ll have to wait and see how Shazam! Fury of the Gods decides to face the years lost as its young cast including Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel and Faithe Herman continue to get older. Of course the main problem the movie could face is some of the kids looking too old to match with the superhero versions of themselves that the third act of the previous movie introduced. Will we need Adam Brody to take over as Freddy if Jack Dylan Grazer already looks like an adult? With filming still set for within the year, all should be well. Sandberg is still leaning into the perhaps overblown worries with this:

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently set to hit theaters on June 2, 2023. Ezra Miller’s first solo outing in The Flash, featuring Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s as their Batmen, is now coming out on Shazam’s previous date on November 4, 2022. The Batman has been moved from October 2021 to March of 2022 and Black Adam, which recently cast its Hawkman has lost its December 2021 release date and is no longer on the schedule.

Check out CinemaBlend’s updated DCEU calendar for the complete list of superhero movies coming out from Warner Bros.

Last year’s Shazam!, the seventh installment in the DC Extended Universe, opened with a flashback to 1974, showing how the young Thaddeus Sivana met the Wizard Shazam and was rejected as a suitable candidate to become the wizard’s champion. During that flashback, we met Sivana’s father, and 45 years later, Mr. Sivana was still around, albeit in a wheelchair due to the car accident he was caught in.

Both times, Mr. Sivana was played by Smallville actor John Glover, though as those who saw the movie will remember, the elder Sivana basically looked the same after the 45-year jump forward. When a Shazam! fan on Twitter recently asked director David F. Sandberg if it was always the plan to have Glover play both the younger and older Mr. Sivana, the filmmaker responded:

As the person who sent David F. Sandberg that question noted, Mr. Sivana looked to be in his mid-to-late 40s in Shazam!’s flashback scene, meaning he’d be in his early-to-mid 90s during the present day events. He does indeed have good genes! But as Sandberg explained, evidently having two different actors play Mr. Sivana proved to be problematic with test audiences, so it was decided to solely have Glover in the role. I’d agree that he boasts those distinct features.

Of course, we didn’t get to spend much time with Mr. Sivana in the present day, as his son murdered him, his brother Sid and Sivana Industries’ board of directors after being empowered by the Seven Deadly Sins. Mr. Sivana and Sid didn’t treat Thaddeus well when he was a child, and clearly that continued into adulthood, so Thaddeus was all too happy to exact revenge after he finally obtained the power he desperately craved.

It’s also worth mentioning that Shazam! was just the latest of John Glover’s DC Comics-related credits. Along with playing Lionel Luthor in Smallville, he also appeared as Jason Woodrue in Batman & Robin and voiced Edward Nygma, a.k.a. The Riddler, in Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. Glover also has a foothold in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having played an SSR informant in the short-lived Agent Carter series.

Along with being critically well-received, Shazam! also did fairly well for itself at the box office with its $366 million worldwide haul. New Line Cinema didn’t wait long to give the green light to a sequel, which we learned at last month’s DC FanDome will be called Shazam! Fury of the Gods. No plot details have been disclosed yet, but Shazam!’s mid-credits scene showed the super intelligent caterpillar known as Mister Mind proposing an alliance with Thaddeus Sivana, so presumably the two of them will stir up some trouble.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to hit theaters on November 4, 2022, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on its development. Learn what other DC movies have been planned for the coming years with our handy guide.

It took nearly eight decades for the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel to finally lead his own theatrical movie, but evidently the wait was worth it, as last year’s Shazam! was a critical success and performed decently at the box office. As a result, Shazam! 2 was quickly given the green light, although we’ll have to wait a little longer for the sequel to arrive due to current events.

Shazam! 2 being delayed is a little more problematic compared to most other superheroes being pushed back, as one of the main appeals of the Shazam mythology is the wish fulfillment of a kid being able to transform into an adult superhero. You wait too long to release a sequel, and the young protagonists who make up the Shazam Family won’t really be kids anymore, which director David F. Sandberg poked fun at with the below top-notch logo for Shazam! 2:

David F. Sandberg posted this amusing Shazam! 2 logo following Matt Reeves revealing the logo for his upcoming DC Comics movie, The Batman. And lest you think otherwise, Sandberg confirmed to a fan in a follow-up tweet that even Darla, the youngest member of the Shazam Family, would rock facial hair. I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Of course, this Shazam! 2 logo is just some good natured jesting, and when David F. Sandberg was questioned by a different fan about how the sequel would handle its actors being teens/young adults this time around, the filmmaker simply posted a picture of a razor. That’s solves one problem, but one would imagine that when Shazam! 2 does finally roll around, it’ll be quite obvious the main characters have grown up quite a bit compared to when we last saw them.

Still, while the comics have the luxury of playing loose with the passage of time, that's significantly harder to do for live-action adaptations, so this was to be expected. Eventually there will come a point where the members of the DCEU’s Shazam Family will have to be classified as adults; in fact, this is basically already the case for Grace Fulton's Mary, as she was preparing to go to college in the first movie. But as far as Shazam! 2 is concerned, it doesn’t sound like David F. Sandberg is concerned about all this since he’s willing to poke fun at the matter.

No official plot details have been revealed yet for Shazam! 2, but along with Billy, Freddy, Mary, Eugene, Pedro and Darla continuing their superhero escapades, the first movie’s mid-credits scene teased an alliance between Doctor Sivana and the super intelligent caterpillar known as Mister Mind. The Shazam mythology will also expand with the Black Adam spinoff movie, but it remains to be seen when Dwayne Johnson’s powerhouse anti-hero and Zachary Levi’s Shazam will eventually clash.

Shazam! 2 will work its magic in theaters on November 4, 2022, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for updates on how it’s coming along. Learn what other DC movies are lined up for the coming years with our comprehensive guide.

Film fans can definitely be enthusiastic, especially when it comes to superhero movies. However, sometimes they can get a little over eager, which can lead to a bit of trolling from some. Shazam! director David F. Sandberg is experiencing that right now, as some fans have already posted fake reactions to his upcoming sequel. But instead of complaining about it, the director decided to have some fun with the fans in the best possible way.

Upon realizing that several people had already posted “reviews” of Shazam! 2 on film-centric social media site Letterboxd, David F. Sandberg took it upon himself to capitalize on the false praise. He did so by creating a fake teaser trailer for the film that actually incorporated the quotes. You can check out the clever video down below:

You have to give David F. Sandberg some credit for taking those lemons and making lemonade. The director has been known to be cheeky in the past, as he previously went as far as to alter a key moment in Shazam!. But this kind of harmless trolling is something we can all appreciate.

Shazam! was a critical and financial success when it premiered in theaters last year, and anticipation for the Zachary Levi/Asher Angel-headlined sequel can’t come soon enough. David F. Sandberg has a few projects on his plate at the moment, but the horror filmmaker has confirmed that the DC Comics sequel is the next project on his list.

Unfortunately, like many other film and television projects, Shazam! 2 has been delayed due to the ongoing global health crisis. Sandberg revealed that the film was originally supposed to shoot this year ahead of a spring 2022 release. As of right now, the director is currently polishing the script and production is scheduled to kick off next spring. In addition, the film has scored a new release date.

Plot details are still being kept on a need-to-know basis, but we may already have an idea of how things could proceed. The post-credits scene of the original film teased the presence of supervillain Mister Mind, who could be teaming up with Doctor Sivana. The dynamics will also change as Billy Batson now has a superpowered family to fight by his side. And of course, there’s also the matter of whether or not the sequel will tie into Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam in any way.

Luckily, fans should get a better sense of Shazam! 2 when David F. Sanberg and some of the film’s cast appear at DC FanDome next weekend. And hopefully, that will be able to talk about and react to that instead of creating fake reactions to a film that his yet to start rolling.

Shazam! 2 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on November 4, 2022.

Fans all across the internet want to know exactly what’s going on with the production of Shazam! 2, and no one can blame them. With the film supposed to be in production right about now, its release date has already been bumped up to a later 2022 debut window. As another production has come on the radar of director David F. Sandberg, it would be fair for folks to be concerned of where the DC Comics film would fit into his schedule. But as luck would have it, Sandberg himself has come out and said that the next film he’ll apply his directing powers towards will in fact be Shazam! 2.

Taking to Twitter to answer a fan’s question about the project, David F. Sandberg has promised that, “pending the continued existence of the world,” Shazam! 2 is the next film on his dance card for sure. It’s an announcement that comes not too soon, as not only had Sandberg previously updated fans that he was still on the project after the obvious delays, but reports of a new horror film he’s also set to direct, entitled The Culling, had those looking forward to the superhero sequel a bit concerned.

So all that needs to happen is for the world to continue its existence, as well as for the shooting conditions of Shazam! 2 to match up to the guidelines in play for major motion pictures in a world that’s still facing a health crisis. That doesn’t seem like too tall of an order, especially with major films like Jurassic World: Dominion and The Batman starting to get back into gear; although both of those films are being shot in the United Kingdom, while Shazam! 2 will probably stay put in its Canadian home.

David F. Sandberg will probably jump straight into Shazam! 2’s director’s chair as soon as possible too, as the young cast of the first film are mostly at that particular age where, if they’re off camera too long, they’ll be CGI de-aged in order to make the sequel work. Though with the built-in delay with the film’s new release date, there’s a chance that Shazam 2 could find its story rewritten to take that extra timing into account.

No matter what the next steps are for Shazam! 2, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that David F. Sandberg will be back to direct the next chapter of Billy Batson’s superpowered adventures. But it’s going to take some time, and a lot of various factors cooperating in their own special way. For now, you can expect Shazam! 2 to say the magic word in theaters on November 4, 2022. And as usual, keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more DC movie updates.

Shazam! director David F. Sandberg has primarily done horror movies like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, and even Shazam! had its moments of horror, which you wouldn’t know given how well he pulls off comedy. Though what he's just done to his superhero film may qualify in both categories. After being pestered about it, David F. Sandberg has altered the cameo from Henry Cavill’s Superman, and it’s ridiculous.

As you may recall, the final scene in Shazam! shows Billy Batson as the hero and Freddy Freeman sitting in the school cafeteria before being visited by another special friend -- Superman. Unfortunately, we never actually get to see Superman’s face, though. But this has now been rectified, as David F. Sandberg took to social media to post a new cut of the scene, complete with Henry Cavill’s face. Check it out:

I'm not going to lie, that is hideous and hilarious at the same time. Still, it’s impossible to look away, since it's almost like David F. Sandberg created some kind of new Superman monster from another dimension.

Originally, the Shazam! producers wanted to bring Henry Cavill into the movie for a cameo, which likely would've included dialogue between him and the main character. Unfortunately, Henry Cavill’s schedule wouldn’t allow him to do it. As a result, we got the faceless Superman cameo scene, instead. Though the creatives weren't exactly disappointed with how things turned out. Shazam! producer Peter Safran believes it turned out even better than expected because it allowed the camera to catch Freddy's reaction.

But who actually wore the Superman suit in the Shazam! scene? Last year, it was reported that stunt performer Ryan Handley stood in for Cavill. Zachary Levi even posted a selfie of him and Ryan Handley standing next to each other in their respective superhero suits. While it’s not Henry Cavill, it’s still pretty cool to see Shazam! and Superman standing next to each other.

As of right now, there’s been no confirmation that Zachary Levi’s Big Red Cheese will fight alongside Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel in a future movie. Henry Cavill might be Superman again in some capacity in the DCEU as it was reported that he is in talks to return as the Man of Steel. However, what that will look like hasn’t been totally confirmed, except that he may cameo in the films of characters he has previous ties to.

We do know that there is definitely more Shazam! on the horizon as a sequel has been greenlit. Unfortunately for fans, the film has been delayed due to recent events. Thankfully, Zachary Levi has stated that DC will want to get started as soon as possible since “those kids are growing up like weeds.” As of now, its new release date is November 4, 2022. The first film is also available to stream on HBO Max.

While the future of the larger DC Extended Universe has more than a few big question marks, one beacon shining bright right now in the franchise is Shazam! While the 2019 solo film didn’t exactly become a box office phenomenon like Wonder Woman or Aquaman, it’s definitely one of the best superhero origin movies in recent years, and it has fans excited for what’s to come from Shazam! 2 – which is currently scheduled for release in November 2022. That in mind, now is probably a good time to get used to the name Mister Mind, as it looks like the character is being set up as a primary antagonist in the sequel.

First introduced back in 1943, Mister Mind has an impressively long history in comics, but the vast majority of movie-goers probably aren’t familiar with him. That’s a problem that we aim to fix with this feature, as we will highlight the key things that you should know about his background before Shazam! 2 kicks into high gear:

Mister Mind Is A Venusian Worm

With his slithering body, bright coloring, many appendages, and diminutive statute, Mister Mind looks quite a lot like an overgrown caterpillar – but don’t be mistaken. In the original comics he was introduced as an alien who originally traveled to Earth hatching schemes for invasion, but his plans fell apart when Shazam (or Captain Marvel, as he was originally known) teleported all of the worms into the depths of space. As you might imagine, this didn’t exactly invite Mister Mind to develop positive feelings about the superhero.

In more recent comics, however, Mister Mind’s backstory has been changed to have him be from one of the seven realms in the Magiclands. He used book learning and magic to get his revenge, eventually feeding his desire to control all of the Magiclands.

Mister Mind Is Constantly In Search Of A New Host Or A Way To Clone Himself

Being the only one of your kind isn’t exactly a pleasure, so one of Mister Mind’s principal motivations is to either clone himself, or create progeny (which are identical to him). Though he can reproduce asexually, the process still requires him to have a host – but the plus for him is that he has a special trick that’s good for getting people to bend to his will.

As His Name Implies, Mister Mind Has Powerful Psychic Abilities

Save for cases where irony is being employed, writers don’t typically give a character a name like “Mister Mind” unless there is something particularly special about their brain – and the worm-like DC Comics villain doesn’t disappoint. He is a powerful telepath who has the ability to take over the minds of those he targets. Combined with his tremendously loose morals, he is a significant danger despite his harmless looks.

Like A Caterpillar, Mister Mind Can Produce A Very Strong Silk

Mister Mind definitely doesn’t act like a typical caterpillar in most capacities, but the alien does share some traits with the insect. For example, the supervillain has the ability to produce a very strong silk that he can use to entrap his enemies like a spider. Here’s hoping we actually get to see that happen at some point in Shazam! 2.

Mister Mind Speaks Through A Talk Box

One of the drawbacks of being an alien worm is that Mister Mind doesn’t have a normal mouth through which he can speak – but he has that covered thanks to handy technology. From the very beginning, the character has always talked through a talk box that he keeps slung around his “neck” on his “chest.” The result is that there is a kind of static-y quality to his “voice,” but it gives him an easy means of communicating that doesn’t involve mental invasion. Speaking of his voice…

Mister Mind Is Voiced By Director David F. Sandberg In The Shazam! End Credits

If you carefully watched the entire end credits of Shazam! trying to find out the voice of Mister Mind, you walked away disappointed, as the identity of the actor was not revealed in the cast list. That’s because the character isn’t voiced by an “actor” in the traditional sense, but instead by director David F. Sandberg. It’s unknown at this point if he will wind up reprising the role in Shazam! 2, or if the project will cast somebody else, but we hope it winds up being the former.

Mister Mind Has Been Known To Team Up With Doctor Sivana

Going back to the start of Mister Mind’s existence, Doctor Sivana has been a pretty pivotal player – proof being that it was actually he who gave the alien worm his moniker. Both of them being psychotic geniuses, their work together isn’t without conflict, but having a common enemy in Shazam helps keep them bonded. Given the aforementioned scene in the end credits of the 2019 film, it’s expected that we will see a live-action team up of Mister Mind and Mark Strong’s Doctor Sivana in Shazam! 2.

Mister Mind Heads Up A Group Called The Monster Society Of Evil

While Mister Mind’s association specifically with Doctor Sivana goes back decades, the cue-ball megalomaniac isn’t the character’s only relationship. Going back to the mid-1940s, Mind brought together five other agents of malice to form the bluntly-named Monster Society Of Evil. Like any supervillain group, the lineup has changed greatly over the years, and it’s not too farfetched to think that we may be only a few years away from seeing the team brought into live-action for the first time.

Mister Mind Has A Higher Form

If you’ve taken away anything from this piece, it should be that Mister Mind is a formidable threat despite his size – but the thought we will leave you with is that the character’s worm-like form isn’t actually his final stage of biological development. If allowed to live for long enough, he eventually transforms into a Hyperfly, which is a being not only massive in scale, but has the capacity to literally eat space and time. How could that idea being translated in a live-action blockbuster? Hopefully we’ll find out one day.

Shazam! 2 is currently scheduled for release on November 4, 2022. We here at CinemaBlend will continue to track the project’s progress as we get closer to the production stage, and will certainly keep you posted regarding updates about Mister Mind’s potential expanded role.

The DC extended universe has had a fascinating tenure in theaters, full of both peaks and valleys. Following the disappointing performance of Justice League, Warner Bros. shifted away from crossover heavy blockbusters to director-driven movies. Aquaman and Shazam! helped the DCEU recover, the latter movie being directed by Annabelle: Creation'sDavid F. Sandberg. And he just revealed a surprise cameo in Shazam! that nobody clocked until now.

Big blockbusters have a lot of moving pieces, and often require tons of background actors to fill out the world that's being created. Directors have been known to put their friends in cameos of this nature, especially in comic book projects or Star Wars. And it turns out that Shazam! actually featured a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from actor Seth Green. As David F. Sandberg recently revealed,

Mind blown. It looks like Seth Green briefly appeared in Shazam! But rather than revealing this and having the audience seek him out on a re-watch, David F. Sandberg revealed exactly where you can find the Robot Chicken creator.

David Sandberg revealed this tidbit via Twitter, while participating in Comic Book.com's ongoing Quarantine Watch Party. And it turns out that Seth Green is one of the background actors that are present after Billy's second visit to a strip club. The scene in question happens in the third act of Shazam!, after the title character has revealed his identity to his foster family. In order to escape Sivana's clutches, Billy must teleport his family to another location with his new powers. And when Freddy tells him to "think of anywhere", which results in the group of kids instantly appearing in the strip club that Shazam previously entered during his training montage.

After the kids walk out (and Freddy is physically kicked out), the group of foster siblings regroup in the streets. That's when Seth Green has his small role, where he walks alongside two other extras in the background of a shot. He wasn't given any real screen time, which makes the revelation of Green's part in Shazam! all the more surprising.

Little moments like this show how much fun David F. Sandberg has working on Shazam! Following the movie's release a year ago, the director has consistently shared tidbits and information about the process on social media. And it looks like he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve, as it turns out that Seth Green has had a role in the blockbuster all along.

It should be interesting to see what comes next or the Shazam! franchise, and if there are any more exciting cameos. David F. Sandberg packed plenty of surprises during his first DC blockbuster, including a Superman cameo and the introduction of the entire Shazam family in their superhero forms. If Black Adam ends up starting production on time, then perhaps we'll finally get to see Shazam fight his arch nemesis from the comics. Only time will tell.

The next installment in the DCEU is Wonder Woman 1984 on August 14th. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

In recent weeks, it’s been made apparent that COVID-19 is not only threatening the future of the release of new movies to theaters, but the shooting schedules of quite a few movies and television shows. Among them is Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which recently stopped rolling cameras in London to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. Could the rest of the DC slate be affected? Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg has provided an update on the upcoming sequel:

It’s an honest and fair update from the filmmaker behind the 2019 superhero flick. Shazam 2 is currently expected to begin filming in early summer to get ready for its release date exactly two years from now: April 1, 2022. The prior film went through a four-month shoot and wrapped shooting just shy of a year before its release date. So far, cancellations have not impeded much farther into the summer than June, but as of right now it’s tough to tell if more push backs will be necessary.

However, Black Adam is reaching a closer deadline since it’s expected to hit theaters in December 2021 following a summer shooting schedule. Before the movies were split in two, Shazam and Black Adam were actually set to be in the same movie. But per these words from David F. Sandberg to ComicBook, it doesn’t sound like the plan for the two DC characters are expected to collide:

The good news here is that if Black Adam gets delayed and Shazam 2 stays on schedule, they may not both have to shift. Lucky for the DCEU, its more recent vision consists of standalone features. Marvel might have a much tougher time shifting things around following Black Widow’s delay.

Another factor to keep in mind for Shazam 2 is the ages of the kids playing Billy Batson, Freddy Freeman and the rest of the super family. There’s a priority on getting to the sequel since they are each aging by the minute. Zachary Levi’s younger counterpart is already 17 years old and waiting too long would make the transformations between him and Shazam a bit ridiculous.

For now, Wonder Woman 1984’s release date has been moved from June to August 14, 2020. The Batman is sticking to its place on the calendar for now and The Suicide Squad looks to be in a good spot since it wrapped filming just a couple weeks before productions started shutting down.

Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates regarding the movie release calendar as they come.

Shortly after Harrison Ford shared the exciting update that he’d finally be cracking the whip on the set of Indiana Jones 5 in April, a bomb was dropped. Steven Spielberg is no longer directing the movie anymore. This will mark the first time the legendary filmmaker will not head an Indy flick, but he’s reportedly still producing. So it’s time to put our best alternatives for directors on the table. Who could rise to the occasion and make Ford’s return to the fedora worthwhile?

Many fans are coming into Indiana Jones 5 with a certain weariness. 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn’t impress overall and it’s gone through a ton of script rewrites. So much so that the original writer David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, 2017’s The Mummy) left and returned to the screenplay to say “we’ve got a good idea this time”. Indiana Jones 5 needs a good director to lead its vision. The loss of Spielberg is a tough blow, but since he’s gone it could be a good opportunity for the franchise to do something different.

With the report of Steven Spielberg’s exit, it's said the director wanted to ”pass along Indy’s whip to a new generation to bring their perspective to the story”. James Mangold is reportedly in talks to take directing duties. This is a great choice already! Mangold is coming off a Best Picture nomination for Ford v. Ferrari and he’s the filmmaker behind Logan, Walk The Line and Girl, Interrupted. But if for some reason he doesn’t end up sticking to the high-profile project (he is developing The Force with Matt Damon and a Bob Dylan biopic with Timothée Chalamet), here’s some more ideas for Indiana Jones 5:

David F. Sandberg

One of the things on the checklist of Indiana Jones fans is a return to the ‘80s filmmaking Raiders of the Lost Ark was born from. Just when it feels like movies aren’t just made like they used to anymore something like David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! hits theaters. The DC film felt like a cross between Big and Superman and struck that unique balance between an action-adventure film being family-friendly and just fun. This is the kind of tone that could be perfect for Indiana Jones 5. Plus, Sandberg has a background in horror (Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation) and some of the most fascinating elements of the franchise was when it leaned into that direction.

Kathryn Bigelow

For a more gritty approach to Indiana Jones why not bring in Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow? The director has been making nail-biting action flicks for decades but has yet to put her name on a massive franchise. She’s the name behind 1991 classic Point Break, 2010 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. What’s interesting about a Bigelow Indiana Jones 5 is she’s been keyed into politics and war through her work. She won’t make a movie without it having something to say and that’s in the DNA of this franchise. Indy is a globetrotter and the artifacts he finds often have him entangled in government affairs and so forth, Bigelow’s voice could elevate Dr. Jones’ adventure in a completely fresh way.

Deborah Chow

If Lucasfilm is looking for a fresher face to helm Indiana Jones 5, it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if they pulled from a director they’ve been working closely with lately on Star Wars: Deborah Chow. The up-and-coming filmmaker is set to helm the Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+ and she’s coming off lending her talents to a couple of the most impressive episodes of The Mandalorian. Prior to this, she has directed episodes of Mr. Robot, Jessica Jones and Better Call Saul. Kathleen Kennedy certainly sees something in Chow and it would be an awesome debut feature film for a female director to be given the keys to.

Jon Favreau

Along the same lines, Jon Favreau has been a pivotal pillar in Lucasfilm’s new era. The director led Star Wars to television with The Mandalorian and back in 2008 he helmed the first movie of the MCU, Iron Man. Sure, he’s in high demand, but if you look at The Mandalorian as a series, it’s very much influenced by the Indiana Jones movies. It’s been nice to see Jon Favreau move away from live-action Disney remakes with the Star Wars series and Indiana Jones 5 might be a good fit for him as well.

Sam Mendes

Along the same lines of Kathryn Bigelow as a choice, Sam Mendes has historically been a director who makes important films. Just a few months ago, many experts believed 1917 was poised to win Best Picture after all. Roger Deakins’ unbroken shots aside, what stood out about Mendes’ 1917 was its message about the tiredness of war. And as Indiana Jones grows older, fans might be looking for more depth in his adventures. Mendes also took over the Bond franchise for a while and produced some of the best of the franchise with Skyfall and Spectre.

Denis Villeneuve

It’s become clear over the years that Harrison Ford sticks with directors who he trusts and has worked together before. The actor probably signed on to Indiana Jones 5 to begin with because he wanted to work with Steven Spielberg again. Recently he talked about how he cameoed in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker because J.J. Abrams asked him to. Simple as that. Now that Spielberg is out, one would imagine Ford would jump at the opportunity to work with Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve. Although he has limited screen time, you could tell Ford really responded to the direction with his performance.

These are all hypothetical choices of course. Many of these directors are busy working on other projects and the latest reporting suggests James Mangold has the project in his hands. It’s tricky because the script for Indiana Jones 5 has been passed along for so long and it’s unclear whether Lucasfilm is aiming to stay on schedule for its July 9, 2021 release date. These choices don’t just put their name on any old thing.

What do you think? Which of these directors would you like to see behind Indiana Jones 5? Or do you have another filmmaker in mind? Sound off in the comments and vote in our poll below.

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When David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! opened in theaters last year, it was released in both the standard 2D format as well as 3D. The DCEU film was not shot in 3D and instead received a post-conversion. In our To 3D or Not to 3D piece for the film, we found that Shazam! in 3D was just okay and not the best the format had to offer. Now Shazam! director David F. Sandberg is sharing his blunt thoughts about 3D conversion, saying:

Taking to Twitter to elucidate his thoughts on 3D after purchasing Shazam! on 3D Blu-ray, David F. Sandberg made it clear that while he’s a fan of the format, citing his love for Nintendo 3DS, he doesn’t think 3D is really worth it for film, at least not right now. Elsewhere in his the thread, David F. Sandberg explains the compromises involved with 3D conversion, using Shazam! as an example.

There were elements to Shazam!’s 3D that weren’t what David F. Sandberg would have preferred that were unavoidable due to the nature of the post-conversion process. While the director thinks there are some cool 3D elements to Shazam!, in general, he seemingly believes the 3D format is only really worth using if used to its full effect by shooting in 3D, like James Cameron did with Avatar.

To take full advantage of 3D, a filmmaker needs to shoot the film with the format in mind, not add in 3D later and try to make it work the best they can. Beyond the technical limitations of 3D conversion and its inferiority to native 3D, David F. Sandberg also touched on what is without a doubt the most common complaint about 3D: the glasses.

Like so many other people, particularly in America (3D is more popular internationally), David F. Sandberg finds wearing 3D glasses to be too much of a hassle. The glasses just add another barrier to the format and being able to view 3D without glasses would really go a long way towards justifying 3D in film.

David F. Sandberg also brings up a great point about how you remember a movie. Do you remember a movie you saw in 3D? I tend to judge 3D on a case-by-case basis, but I’ve only ever had two experiences stick with me from the format: Avatar and, to a lesser degree, Alita: Battle Angel.

So given the current state of the format, without shooting in 3D and using a cinematic language suited to that extra dimension from the start, and as long as it still requires glasses, David F. Sandberg thinks that 3D isn’t really worth it for film. He will therefore always keep the 2D experience at the forefront of his vision when making a movie.

That said, the director of Shazam! totally understands why these conversions take place and made sure to praise the thankless work that goes into them, saying:

Good on David F. Sandberg for shouting out the little guys who do a lot of tireless work on 3D conversions, but receive none of the glory that other people involved with these big budget films do. If you’ve ever wondered part of why 3D conversions are often so lackluster, David F. Sandberg hits on it right here.

The 3D conversions take place after shots are completed with finished VFX. As we’ve seen, particularly recently, VFX is always a compromise in and of itself as deadlines and release dates force artists to get a film to where its good enough, when oftentimes more time would result in an even more convincing product. So that really the 3D conversion people who come in after are really up against it time-wise.

David F. Sandberg returns to the DCEU for the Shazam! sequel, which is now slated for release on April 1, 2022. While you wait, there are plenty of huge movies hitting theaters this year, check them out in our 2020 Release Schedule.

Billy Batson was naturally the star of Shazam!, but by the time the movie ended, he wasn’t the only new superhero on the DC Extended Universe block. During the climactic showdown with Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, Billy used the Wizard Shazam’s staff to share his powers with his foster siblings, resulting in them being Shazam-ified.

Rest assured, Mary Bromfield, Freddy Freeman, Eugene Choi, Pedro Peña and Darla Dudley becoming superheroes wasn’t temporary. In fact, director David F. Sandberg plans on having the Shazam family (or Shazamily, if you prefer) play a bigger role in Shazam! 2. In Sandberg’s words:

Family, be it biological or through different bonds, has always been an important part of the Shazam mythos. While Eugene, Pedro and Darla have only been around for a little under a decade, Mary and Freddy been fighting the forces of evil with Shazam, previously known as Captain Marvel, for almost as long as he’s been around. Billy may go on his own adventures here and there or serve on a team like the Justice League, but barring any unusual circumstances, he always has family to turn back to.

In the case of the Shazam! movie, it pulled from the New 52 source material by having Billy Batson bring his foster siblings into the superhero life not too long after he was drawn in, only this time it was Doctor Sivana controlling the Seven Deadly Sins rather than Black Adam. Billy snapped the Wizard Shazam’s staff afterwards to prevent Sivana from harnessing its power, but the abilities the other kids received beforehand are permanent.

While some longtime Shazam fans might have thought the entire Shazam family would be saved for another installment, David F. Sandberg decided to bring them in right out the gate in order to help make Shazam! the best it could be. As he put it:

As for who the Shazam Family will battle in Shazam! 2, that’s unclear. Granted, the Shazam! mid-credits scene set up an alliance between Sivana and Mr. Mind, but during his interview with Comicbook.com, David F. Sandberg also posited that another villain could be introduced. Probably not Black Adam though, as it sounds like that conflict is being saved for even later down the line.

Regardless, Shazam! 2 is being put on the fast-track, namely because the kids are getting older. The main appeal of the Shazam mythos is how a regular kid can turn into a superhero with just a word, and if you wait too long and they start to look more like adults, then part of the charm is gone. That’s a problem that will need to be solved eventually, but as long as Shazam! 2 gets underway relatively soon, it shouldn’t be too big a deal.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest and greatest updates concerning Shazam! 2, but for now, look through our DC movies guide to learn what else is in development for this superhero franchise.

Moviemaking is "nothing but problem-solving," says Shazam! director David F. Sandberg. In his new behind-the-scenes video, he points out how his DC film tried to solve a problem at the last minute, when it turns out no one noticed there were several crew members huddled in the back of a mall shot.

Shazam! director David F. Sandberg took the time to further explain something he mentioned in the commentary track for the digital release. As he noted in his YouTube video, when people talk about movie problems, they may just think of the big things -- like the visual effects. That's what he did in the mall scene. He said he was so focused on making Zachary Levi's Shazam fly, he didn't notice the crew members who were standing in the background of the scene:

D'oh! As the director admitted, he spotted the crew members way too late. There was no time to paint them out of the scene, but there was just enough time to give them shopping bags and a mop to transform them into shoppers and a janitor.

Problem solved! However, as David F. Sandberg quipped of the crew members-turned-way-too-chill shoppers:

True. But viewers really have to pay close attention to even wonder why those people in the back of the mall aren't reacting. Also, I can think of a few people who could be in that mall at that time and the world could end around them and they'd be too self-absorbed to notice.

Watch the Shazam! director's full video for more tidbits on the making of the movie. It's really a gift to get this kind of background, so props to David F. Sandberg for his candor, his humor, and his expertise.

As he noted, Shazam! is now available on digital, and the iTunes version offers his commentary track. Don't forget to check out CinemaBlend's exclusive clip from the Blu-ray, which comes out July 16.

It's exciting to think we might get more of these behind-the-scenes breakdowns after the Shazam! sequel and (hopefully) Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam movie. They are both said to be in the works, and Zachary Levi recently gave a quick update on when he expects to squeeze back into that expensive suit for Shazam! 2. In the meantime, keep up with everything that's still headed to the big screen this year with our handy 2019 movie schedule.

Warning: SPOILERS for Shazam! are ahead!

It’s been almost two months since Shazam! first hit theaters, which means it’s now winding down its run on the big screen. However, once that’s complete, you’ll be able to pick up the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s first movie on home media, and among the special features that will be included are an alternate opening and an alternate ending.

For those who need a refresher, Shazam! began in 1974, showing how the young Thaddeus Sivana was brought to the Rock of Eternity by The Wizard Shazam, but deemed unworthy to serve as the Wizard’s champion because he was tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins. Right after being sent back Earth, Thaddeus, his father and brother were caught in a car accident that crippled Daddy Sivana.

Here’s what Shazam! director David F. Sandberg had to say about the movie’s alternate opening that will be available to fans on Twitter:

While Thaddeus Sivana being brought to the Rock of Eternity via an elevator is reminiscent of how Billy Batson was brought there through a subway train, the car crash was definitely the more jarring approach, as initially it looked like the Sivana family avoided being struck by one car, only to be hit out of nowhere by another. As far as the origins of the Seven Deadly Sins go, the movie provided a reasonable amount of background on them, so throwing in a little extra for the Young Sivana might have been too much.

As for Shazam!’s ending, the main story wrapped up with the Shazam-ified Billy Batson and his new friend Superman having lunch at school with Freddy Freeman and their adoptive siblings. But after that, the mid-credits scene showed the incarcerated Sivana being visited by Mister Mind, who was briefly shown when Sivana visited the Rock of Eternity as a kid, but had been freed by the time Billy Batson was brought to the Wizard’s liar.

On the off chance they weren’t satisfied with the sinister caterpillar’s appearance, David F. Sandberg and his team had a backup plan, with Sandberg revealing:

It’s unclear what David F. Sandberg specifically meant by if Mr. Mind’s cameo “didn’t work,” but regardless, that didn’t end up being a concern. That being said, seeing the Shazam Family foil a crime together would have clarified to those unfamiliar with the comics that Freddy, Mary, Pedro, Eugene and Darla permanently retained their powers, as opposed to their time as superheroes being a one-time thing.

While Shazam! didn’t make nearly as big of a splash at the box office as Aquaman did, it received a lot of positive reviews, and Warner Bros has a sequel in development. While it will be a while until we learn specific plot details concerning Shazam! 2, but it’s a good bet that it will involve Sivana and Mr. Mind getting up to nefarious shenanigans.

You can purchase Shazam! on Digital HD on July 2, and the Blu-ray and DVD copies will hit shelves on July 16. If you’re wondering what the DC Extended Universe has coming up, look through our handy guide.

Reshoots are pretty commonplace in filmmaking, especially for blockbusters. Big studio films are almost guaranteed to reserve a block of time for reshoots. Sometimes things change in the editing room and filmmakers decide they need to get the cameras back out. For example, that very same thing happened on Shazam! The fun superhero film reshot the intro scene for its villain, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong), because the room he was in was a bit too sterile.

In Shazam!, Dr. Sivana is a man obsessed with breaking into the Rock of Eternity and freeing the Seven Deadly Sins, a group of demons who symbolize the worst traits in humanity. Technically, the first time we see Sivana is as a child in the opening minutes of the film, but the scene that was reshot was his intro as an adult.

The scene in question had Sivana overseeing the questioning of a person who visited the Rock of Eternity in the hopes that he could finally get a clue to return there. Originally, the room he was in was much more sterile with blank white walls, but director David F. Sandberg felt that this wasn't quite the right way to introduce his baddie.

Replying to a comment on Twitter, David F. Sandberg revealed that there wasn't enough extra footage to do a director's cut of Shazam! The footage on screen is exactly what he wanted and all of the unused footage is really just alternate takes of scenes in the film. As an example, he showed a pic of the original introduction for Sivana. It's still the same scene, it just takes place in a different room.

While I can't remember for the life of me what this conference room looked like in the actual movie, I think it was a good call to change the room. It's pretty boring looking, and while I'm sure it could have been spruced up in post-production, that wouldn't likely change much.

We don't know what else was changed in the film during reshoots, but maybe some of these alternate takes will be available on the digital and home release of Shazam! The movie has been enjoying a pretty healthy run at the box office, earning $322.8 million worldwide at the box office. That's pretty good for the first film in what is sure to be a franchise, and DC's hot streak still lives on.

If you missed out on Shazam! or just want to kill some time before Avengers: Endgame later this week, you can still catch the superhero film in theaters. For everything else DC has coming down the pipeline, here's our DC movie guide. If you'd like to know what else is coming this year to plan out all your upcoming theater trips, here's our 2019 movie release guide.

Shazam! was top of the charts for two weeks in a row and just passed the $100 million milestone at the domestic box office.

Shazam! is heading into its third weekend with $104 million on the domestic front and $178 million from the foreign box office for a current total of $282 million worldwide. That's not counting the money it'll pick up this Easter weekend. (Speaking of Easter, don't miss some key Shazam! Easter eggs.)

According to Deadline, Shazam! passed the $100 million mark at the North American market in its 13th day of release.

Are these huge numbers? No, and certainly not for a major superhero movie. But everything about Shazam! has been positive so far, from the critics' reviews (90% on Rotten Tomatoes) to the fan response (A CinemaScore, 88% RT audience score) to the humble and grateful reactions of star Zachary Levi, director David F. Sandberg, and the rest of the cast.

Shazam! had a reported production budget of $100 million, per Box Office Mojo, and that doesn't usually include things like marketing. So Shazam! is just starting to break even and make a profit worldwide.

This weekend, though, Shazam! is expected to take second place to another Warner Bros. movie, The Curse of La Llorona. The Conjuring Universe movie is expected to make around $17 million, with Shazam! following with around $13.5 million. That's just at the domestic box office, and more will be added from foreign markets. Shazam! has already made $40 million in China, the second biggest box office market in the world after us.

Shazam! is technically part of the DC Extended Universe and even originally planned to have an appearance from Superman himself, Henry Cavill. So far, as compared to the previous six DCEU films, Shazam! is squarely at the bottom of that pack. That seems expected -- it was never eyed for massive blockbuster money. Then again, Aquaman was something of a surprise as the first DCEU movie to pass $1 billion, and the highest-grossing DC Comics movie of all time.

At the domestic box office, Shazam!'s current $104 million is just below Justice League's $229 million, and they are far below the current domestic leader, Wonder Woman, who has $412.5 million. Worldwide, Aquaman is the overall champ with a current total of $1.14 billion. Justice League is at the bottom of that pack, other than Shazam! (which is still earning money), with the Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon movie making $657.9 million total.

Shazam! has a long to way to go in its journey, but do you think it has any hopes of beating Justice League at the box office, or will it stay #7 on the list of the seven DCEU movies so far? There's no shame in it. Someone has to be the scrappy underdog.

Besides, there's a long way up from here. Shazam! could potentially lead to several sequels, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Black Adam movie, which he's already plugging a year before filming.

Shazam! is still playing in theaters as one of the many movies worth watching in 2019. Come back to CinemaBlend Easter Sunday afternoon for our full box office report on how Shazam! fared against the many new releases out this week.

Shazam! just topped the box office for a second week in a row. How many of this weekend's fans were repeat viewers, watching a second or even third time to try and catch all of the Easter eggs? Director David F. Sandberg is doing his part to get even more fans into seats to see the DC movie. When a fan pointed out a key little nugget in the background of a scene, Sandberg shared it as an argument for people to go back and watch Shazam! again:

Since David F. Sandberg seemed fine with this fan sharing a screenshot of his movie, here's a larger shot of the Easter egg in question, visible in the top right corner:

Yes, that ACE Chemicals logo ties to the Gotham storyline, specifically the Joker. According to the DC story, the Joker fell into a vat of chemical solution at ACE and transformed into the villain we know and love to hate today.

The ACE logo was shown during Shazam!'s warehouse scene, when Billy and Freddy tried to figure out the extent of Billy's new powers. Some fans replied to the original tweet saying they missed this particular Easter egg when watching the movie.

Another tie to the DCEU is where the empty warehouse was filmed. According to ScreenRant, they used the Hearn Generating Station outside of Toronto -- the same location used for ACE Chemicals during Suicide Squad.

Since David F. Sandberg pointed out the Easter egg himself, he probably hoped some fans would put the pieces together, even if it took multiple viewings. The director has been sharing little Easter eggs for the past year, long before the movie even opened -- including nods to Man of Steel, and a copy of The Daily Planet in Freddy's room, with a report on Lex Luthor.

As you probably know by now, Shazam! had originally hoped for a cameo from the DCEU's current Superman, Henry Cavill, but scheduling issues got in the way. Shazam! still managed to include a version of its intended scene, in honor of superhero-obsessed Freddy. You might consider the Shazam! director's own cameo in the movie an Easter egg, since it's not at all obvious.

Shazam! is a movie that lends itself to repeat viewing, and also post-viewing research. For example, here's some help deciphering the end credits scene. And don't forget how all of this ties into Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Black Adam movie, which he said would start filming in about a year. The producers said they will probably move pretty quickly on a sequel to Shazam! and not just because of fan demand.

Shazam! is owning April so far, but don't forget (as if you would) Avengers: Endgame is coming April 26. Keep up with everything headed to the big screen with our 2019 movie release date schedule.