Shazam 2 Had to Remove 1 Death Scene Due to Negative Test Audience Reaction

According to Shazam! Fury of the Gods' director, his team had to delete a wild death scene after it garnered a negative reaction from test audiences. Comic book movies are well-known for going through major periods of adjustment to trim down runtimes and adjust story details, particularly when taking test audiences' reactions into consideration

Director David F. Sandberg shared new information on a death scene he deleted from 2023's Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Sandberg addressed taking this specific scene out of the movie following a negative reaction from a test screening for his second DC movie, which impacted the level of gore and violence viewers would accept in the sequel.

Looking back at the movie on his YouTube channel, Sandberg addressed a scene where Lucy Liu's Kalypso, one of Shazam 2's main villains, killed a construction worker sitting in a porta-potty and eating a sandwich. As Kalpso came up to him with the door open, she killed him brutally, leaving viewers in shock.

In this scene, Kalypso stabbed the construction worker (seemingly in the head) with the blunt end of her staff, leaving blood dripping from both the staff and the hole in the porta-potty wall. 

Sandberg recalled "a sound of disgust" coming from the audience with that scene, but it was not a positive disgust. Hearing that reaction from fans, he came to the conclusion that he had "probably gone too far" with the gore, leading to the decision to remove the scene from the movie.

Sandberg is known for discussing scenes that do not make the final cut of his movies, explaining his process to viewers so they understand more about how the filmmaking process works. Although DC films have included some gory and violent material in the past (as they will in the future), this moment did not land well with viewers in an early cut.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is one of the final movies in the old DCEU, directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, and more. This sequel pits Billy Batson, his super-powered alter-ego, and his family in a battle with a trio of ancient goddesses who come to Earth in search of magic stolen from them centuries prior. Shazam 2 is streaming on HBO Max.

How Other DC Movies Have Been Changed Before Release

While this change to Shazam 2 was relatively minor, past DC movies have experienced far more extensive changes before their releases, especially over the last decade.

Most notable in that discussion is David Ayer's Suicide Squad, with Warner Bros. famously wanting much more comedy in the movie than Ayer had initially intended. There were also various changes to how each character was introduced, with the final cut zooming through those debuts rather than having them come into the movie in a more linear fashion.

Then, of course, director Zack Snyder became the poster boy for this theme thanks to his work on Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021. After Joss Whedon took over for him on Justice League in the wake of Snyder's daughter's death, the film became a melting pot of both directors' plans, which resulted in the film being a critical and financial disaster. In his own cut, Snyder doubled the film's runtime and made it completely with his vision of the story, leading to a movie that quickly became a hit for Snyder fans and DC fans alike.

Moving forward, Warner Bros. will dive into a new DC Universe behind James Gunn and Peter Safran, which kicks off in theaters with Superman in July. While changes will surely be made behind the scenes for most (if not all) of the new DC stories being developed, fans will be curious to see how these projects evolve as the new saga comes to fruition.