Just because the Shazam 2! release date has been delayed by seven months doesn’t mean the film itself is now off track. Indeed, Warner Bros. recently announced a slew of release date changes for some of its biggest upcoming films – including The Batman and The Flash – and these new delays have caused WB’s entire schedule to shift backwards. That’s mostly fine for something like The Batman, which is currently filming, or The Flash which is made up of adult actors, but fans were concerned that this delay might mean some, uh, inconsistencies between the first Shazam! and the second film as it relates to its cast of kids.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is bringing back Zachary Levi and Adam Brody to be sure, but also its young lead characters – Asher Angel (currently 18), Jack Dylan Grazer (currently 17), and Faithe Herman (currently 12). And if that release date delay means the filming is also being delayed, just a few months can mean serious growth spurts for these youngsters.

Luckily, that won’t be happening. Director David F. Sandberg took to Twitter to share his humorous reaction to the release date announcement before actually dropping some news: the Shazam! 2 filming schedule (which is planned to start shooting in 2021) is not changing despite the release date changing:

This makes a lot of sense. If you think of every major studio’s release calendar like a series of dominos and then factor in that a ton of huge movies from 2020 have now been pushed into 2021, that then just pushes the release of everything back. Warner Bros. was supposed to have Dune in theaters this fall, but recently shifted it to October 2021 when The Batman was supposed to come out. The studio obviously doesn’t want two of its films competing against one another, so The Batman then moved to March 2022, which then shifts which big movies WB has scheduled for the spring of 2022 and on and on it goes.

So this means that just because The Batman’s release date has been delayed doesn’t mean the production will need that much longer to complete filming. And this also might explain why Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam might still be looking to start shooting in the first half of 2021 but as of right now doesn’t have a settled release date.

We’re in uncharted territory here folks, and the studios are doing the best they can to rearrange their calendars accordingly while also giving the big tentpoles that were scheduled for 2020 a proper launch and wide berth in 2021.

So as you hear more release date news in the future, keep in mind that doesn’t necessarily mean the filming schedule for those movies has changed. Which means Shazam! 2 luckily won’t look like this: