Earlier this year, nearly eight full decades after he made his first comic book appearance, Shazam (or the OG Captain Marvel, if you prefer) finally made the jump to the big screen, and the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s movie was met with critical acclaim. A sequel was soon put into development, and word has come in that Shazam! 2 will drop on April 1, 2022.
Yes, in addition for being yet another opportunity for people to engage in April Fools shenanigans, April 1, 2022 will also be the day you can finally see Shazam! 2 in theaters, so fingers crossed this doesn’t end up being an elaborate prank. Clearly Warner Bros (specifically New Line) and DC are content with keeping Billy Batson in spring territory rather than move him to summertime or winter. The sequel is the only movie slotted for that date so far, and while you can be sure that will eventually change, it’s a good bet that it will end up being the biggest release of that opening weekend.
Shortly after Shazam! was released, producer Peter Safran mentioned how Shazam! 2 would need to get rolling sooner rather than later due to how Asher Angel, who plays Billy Batson, and the actors filling out the roles of Billy’s foster siblings are growing up. Zachary Levi echoed that sentiment a few months later, and beforehand speculated that filming on the sequel will begin in either late spring or early summer 2020. Now a date is locked in for when the public will get to see it.
Shazam! 2 is now the third DC movie set for release in 2022. The Flash is now scheduled to race onto the big screen on July 1, and Aquaman 2 will dive into theaters on December 16. Unless Warner Bros is willing to follow in Marvel’s footsteps and expand the DC slate to four movies a year, it looks like these will be the three heroes we’ll follow along with that year, assuming there are no changes (I’m looking at you, Flash).
It’s also worth mentioning that Shazam! 2 is being released a little over three months after Black Adam, which is coming out on December 22, 2021. Initially the plan was for Black Adam to serve as Shazam!’s main villain, but it was later decided that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s version of the character was important enough to star in his own movie first. We still don’t know yet when these two magically-powered titans will finally clash on the big screen (Zachary Levi thinks it’ll be in Shazam! 3), but at least Shazam fans will be getting two doses of this overall mythology within just months of one another.
So with Black Adam presumably off the table, what can we expect from Shazam! 2? Well, you’ll recall that Freddy, Mary, Pedro, Eugene and Darla were all Shazam-ified during the first movie’s climactic showdown against Dr. Sivana, so one can safely assume that the Shazam Family will be together again. Shazam!’s mid-credits scene also showed Sivana meeting Mr. Mind in his prison cell, with the super-intelligent caterpillar saying how together, they will conquer the Seven Realms. If that wasn’t a tease for what’ll go down in the sequel, then I don’t know what is.
In addition to most, if not all of the main Shazam! cast either confirmed or expected to reprise their respective roles, THR reports that David F. Sandberg and Henry Gayden are returning to direct and pen the script, respectively. In addition to being critically well-received, Shazam! also pulled in $364.6 million worldwide, having been made with a budget in the $80-$100 million range.
Keep checking back with CinemanBlend for more updates on how Shazam! 2 is coming along. Don’t forget to look through our DC movies guide to learn what else this superhero franchise has coming down the pipeline.
