No, Superman was not at the Warner Bros. DC Comic-Con showcase, but WB did bring a couple of their superheroes to San Diego for their time in the sun. The paramount of these were Shazam and Black Adam.
Both are set to round out DC's theatrical slate for 2022 with Shazam! Fury of the Gods releasing in December and Black Adam in October. The two heroes (played by Zachary Levi and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the big screen) have a long-time rivalry in the comics. Billy Batson and Teth-Adam have come face-to-face on the comic page many times over the years, so the question of when the two will meet on-screen has obviously come up.
While many creatives involved in the DCEU have sounded off on the two squaring off, Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg has finally sounded off on the subject as well, as offered an update on where in production the upcoming DC sequel is.
When is Shazam Vs Black Adam Happening?
In an interview with Collider, Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg offered his thoughts on whether Shazam and Black Adam will meet at some point on the big screen.
Sandberg told the site that "there hasn’t really been a conversation about that," mentioning that "Black Adam is sort of its thing and Shazam is its thing," so fans will have to wait and "see where it all goes in the future:"
"There hasn’t really been a conversation about that. I know, at the moment, Black Adam is sort of its thing and Shazam is its thing. Then we’ll see where it all goes in the future, but I haven’t really been a part of any conversations like that."
The director also broke down some aspects of the sequel and where they are at in production. When asked about the story of Fury of the Gods and how close things were to going a different direction, Sandberg revealed that they "looked at following the comic book closer," but decided they "wanted to do something more in our world," as the comic "goes way into the fantasy lands and stuff like that:"
"First, we looked at following the comic book closer, the New 52 version, because there were new issues of that. It felt like we wanted to do something more in our world because the comic book goes way into the fantasy lands and stuff like that. Once we had that down, we knew we wanted to do more with the family because the family isn’t in the first movie that much. They don’t even know about Shazam’s power. We wanted to see them all together and just up the stakes and just do more of everything."
Speaking on where the Shazam extended family is at in the sequel Sandberg said that "They haven’t really learned how to work together" yet and the movie is about "them having to learn to work together and be a superhero team:"
"In the movie, Shazam, he’s trying to keep the family together, but everyone’s doing their own thing. They haven’t really learned how to work together and especially Freddy. He just wants... “Yeah, I’m going to be a superhero on my own. Why do we have to do everything together?” The movie is about them having to learn to work together and be a superhero team."
When prodded on where in the post-production process Fury of the Gods is at, the director stated that they are "just finishing it up," meaning "the [movie’s] locked and everything," they just have to finish some "VFX and recording [of] music:"
"Now it’s just finishing it up, all the VFX and recording the music with a proper orchestra and everything. The movie is pretty much... The cut’s locked and everything, so it’s just finishing it up."
That is not to say the movie will be finished early. Sandberg finished by remarking that this part of the production process is like a "marathon" full of things like "hour-long VFX reviews every day:"
"Yeah, and that’s the marathon. It’s like hour-long VFX reviews every day. It just takes forever and it’s so much, but it’s looking pretty cool. That dragon."
David F. Sandberg Has Spoken
So, that is it! There really are no plans for a Black Adam vs Shazam battle, at least none that David F. Sandberg knows of. And he is either playing really coy, or DC is keeping one of their main directors in the dark.
But fans waiting for this eventual duel should not fret too much. Shazam and Black Adam are so intertwined as characters that their eventual meeting feels inevitable. So, surely in some board room at WB they are planning for exactly that. However, at this time, it may be so early that someone like Sandberg has not been given the low-down on the situation.
Right now, Black Adam and the two Shazam! films are so vastly different in tone that seeing this particular duo butt-heads on-screen feels like it could be a little jarring, at least right now. For now, DC should let the Black Adam character get established on screen, further grow Shazam and his band of heroes, and then down the line, they can always have the two meet up on-screen.
But there is no need to rush anything, as the DCEU as a whole has some bigger problems to figure out before they get to Billy Batson and Teth-Adam.
