Shazam! Fury of the Gods' director, David F. Sandberg, took to Instagram to dismiss recent rumors that the movie’s delay was caused by reshoots. After the movie was moved from December 2022 to March 2023, fans got concerned that the delay would mean the highly-anticipated sequel to the 2019 DCEU film Shazam! would go through some last-minute changes. That’s not the case, though, as Sandberg underlines the movie is nearly done and won’t be touched until release.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods' delay came just a few weeks after Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's Batgirl, scrapped the Supergirl and Wonder Twins movies, and announced a 10-year plan that will theoretically unify every DC production under a single banner, similar to what Marvel Studios does. The changes were caused by the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, as the new company tries to clean the slate of TV and movies and develop a more profitable approach for the upcoming years. In DC’s case, that means focusing only on theatrical releases, with each movie connecting to a bigger universe and pointing to crossover events.
It’s easy to see how concerned fans could be speculating that Shazam! Fury of the Gods would have to suffer some cuts to fit Warner Bros. Discovery’s new plan. However, as Sandberg says in his recent post, “the cut has been locked for quite some time and we’re doing final mix, color, and VFX right now.” Since VFX is one of the most expensive aspects of blockbusters films, the heavy lifting of special effects is only greenlit after the studio is satisfied with the movie’s version that’s presented by the director. That’s exactly the case of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, as Sandberg underlines that “everyone’s happy with the film and we’re not going to work any longer on it just because of the release date shift.”
At the end of 2019’s Shazam!, Billy Batson (Asher Angel for the teenage version, Zachary Levi for the superhero) shared his powers with his entire foster family, becoming a team of heroes who fight evil together. The cast is back for the sequel, with the teenage and heroic versions of each member of the Shazam family being respectively played by Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody, Ian Chen/Ross Butler, Jovan Armand/D. J. Cotrona, and Darla Dudley/Meagan Good. For the sequel, actress Grace Caroline Currey expanded her role, showing up as both the teenager and the superhero version of Mary Bromfield – Michelle Borth played the superhero adult in the first film.
Joining the cast for the sequel are Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren as the Daughters of Atlas, descendants of one of the gods that gives Billy his powers and who are not happy to see the stamina of Atlas being misused by children.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods will hit theaters on March 17, 2023. Check out Sandberg's posts and the film’s latest trailer below:
