While Hollywood has seemingly been on pause due to COVID-19, DC has shown no signs of slowing down. During last month's DC FanDome event, actors and creators revealed plans and broke news for upcoming films, projects, and television shows. For instance, during the Shazam! panel, fans of the 2019 film starring Zachary Levi and Asher Angel learned the sequel film scheduled for a 2022 release will be titled Shazam!: Fury of the Gods .
Zachary Levi later shared an unofficial poster for the sequel on Instagram and has continued to provide information and updates about the upcoming film.
NEWS
On Dan Fogler's 4D Xperience , Zachary Levi discussed the sequel's filming schedule and its delayed release date. He first shared just how anticipated the Shazam! sequel is, considering it was greenlit by Warner Bros. "right after we [ Shazam! ] premiered:"
"They announced that we were gonna do a sequel pretty much right after we premiered. They knew we were tracking well enough, they were happy enough with the numbers... So they have been steadily and earnestly working on the script for the sequel and I think Q1 of next year is the idea... COVID has kind of made everything a little bit up in the air, but very much the intent is to make another one. We gotta get to it fast, the kids are growing fast."
Even though COVID-19 created headaches for the movie industry in regard to delaying theatrical release dates, it seems to have worked to the benefit for Shazam! Fury of the Gods .
Originally slated for an April 2022 release, earlier this year Warner Bros. pushed the sequel to November 2022. While Levi feels shooting needs to begin ASAP, the new release date is a good thing.
"It was gonna be April 2022 and then they pushed [the date], partly because of COVID, I think," said Levi. "I'm actually quite grateful — I think a November release is a better calendar [spot]."
Levi also compared Fury of the God 's release date to that of 2018's Aquaman :
"Because its early November release is going into the Christmas season. Hopefully, we can kind of float and keep it going into the holidays. Aquaman had that right-before-Christmas release and [grossed] a billion-plus dollars."
WHAT THIS MEANS
While Shazam! wasn't a major box office success upon its release, the origin story film was met with positive reviews by both critics and fans. Levi was praised for his performance as the adult Billy Batson, but the kids who made up most of the cast were the real highlight. But, as with any film series starring children, time is always critical.
Also, because of how Shazam! ended, we know Shazam (Billy Batson) won't be the only hero for the majority of the movie now that his brothers and sisters have superhero alter egos of their own. It's possible the film's kid cast could have even more screen time than in the original film.
In addition, we know that the cast will be expanding to include actor and comedian Sinbad ; and with Black Adam fully in the works , it will be interesting to see if that character has any involvement in Shazam!: Fury of the Gods since they do share the same universe.
