The upcoming film Shazam! Fury of the Gods is confirmed to ignore the teases in the first movie's post-credits tag.
At the end of the first Shazam!, the project's post-credits scene picks up with Mark Strong's Doctor Sivana in jail, scribbling symbols on the wall like a madman. He then starts to hear a voice—one that belongs to a talking caterpillar.
The insect in question happens to be the one and only Mister Mind. The character is a worm from space sporting powerful psionic abilities such as telepathy and mind control powers. He also happens to be an infamous villain from Shazam's rogue gallery.
Fury of the Gods to Ignore Mister Mind
In an interview with Cinemablend, Shazam! Fury of the Gods writer Henry Gayden revealed that the sequel will not be acknowledging the first film's post-credits scenes.
Gayden admitted that, at one point and time, the sequel did have Sivana and Mister Mind as potential villains:
"There was a long period of developing it and going down various alleys, like who the villain is, Sivana, Mister Mind, all these things that we did. But the one core thing that was there from the jump after the first movie was (that) the next story for Billy is, now that he has a family, how does he behave? And it is, now that he has it, he’s terrified to lose it."
Despite their exploration of those characters, the writer revealed that "it didn't feel like it was telling an emotional next installment:
"It was a few months. And it was really fun. But what ended up happening is it felt redundant with the first movie. Because despite Mister Mind being a fascinating new edition, it still was a lot of Sivana and Billy, and it didn’t feel like it was telling an emotional next installment. It just felt like it was telling the natural next installment, action-wise."
Gayden noted how "one of [his] favorite things [he's] ever written" was part of the old Sivana drafts but that at the end of the day, the story with the Daughters of Atlas was the right direction to go in:
"So emotionally, when we got to the sisters and the Daughters of Atlas, it was about like, ‘How do we get these powers? Do we deserve them?’ Questioning that, and really telling that story was much more compelling than continuing the Sivana story right now. That’s not to say they were in the future. And I had to take… one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, I wrote for the Sivana drafts. But I think, ultimately, this emotionally was the best story to tell."
Shazam's Uncertain Future
It's already been confirmed that Fury of the Gods had two post-credits scenes at one point.
However, given the upcoming DCU reboot, many fans wonder if either of them will make the final cut. More importantly, if they do, could audiences just be getting big sequel teases that won't end up going anywhere—like Black Adam's Henry Cavill tag?
Shazam's existence in James Gunn's upcoming slate remains a big question mark. No one seems to know what'll happen to the hero or his supporting cast.
Odds are that DC Studios is waiting to make any final decisions until the movie's box office performance can be seen.
If Billy Batson does get to return for more adventures, instead of Mister Mind, Gunn should absolutely set up a showdown between Shazam and his archnemesis Black Adam—something that wasn't going to happen with Dwayne Johnson due to the actor's odd disdain for Levi's hero.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods hit theaters on Friday, March 17.
