The journey to getting Shazam! 2, a.k.a. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, is lasting longer than expected, but last week, the DC Comics sequel finally began filming last week. Just like in the original Shazam!, Zachary Levi will play the superpowered form of Asher Angel’s Billy Batson, but he won’t look quite the same as last time. That’s because the actor is wearing a new costume, as director David F. Sandberg teased in a new video.
Taking to Twitter, David F. Sandberg showed off Zachary Levi’s new Shazam costume in all its glory. Or rather, that would be the case if someone had set up proper lighting. Watch below to see what I mean:
Clearly David F. Sandberg and the rest of the Shazam! Fury of the Gods team aren’t ready just yet to give the public an official look at Zachary Levi’s new Shazam costume. That said, it’s amusing this video arrives just hours after Jamie Lee Curtis shared silhouetted photos she took of her Borderlands costars, and I can’t help but wonder if Sandberg’s video is directly poking fun at that. Or maybe this is making fun of when Robert Pattinson was first shown in the Batman costume, as that video was bathed in shadows and moody red lighting.
Regardless, Billy Batson will be wearing new superhero duds upon saying the magic word in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. But let’s not forget that he’s not alone in the fight against evil, as in the first Shazam! movie, Billy shared his incredible powers with his foster siblings Freddy, Mary, Eugene, Darla and Pedro. It’s unclear if their costumes have also been redesigned for Fury of the Gods, though I suspect they have been if the filmmakers are wanting the Shazam Family members to continue matching.
Originally Shazam 2! was supposed to begin filming in mid-2020 so it’d be ready for an April 2022 release, but like so many film and TV productions, those plans got thrown out the proverbial window by COVID-19. So instead, the sequel’s title was announced at last year’s DC FanDome, and on May 26, principal photography kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with David F. Sandberg directing again, Henry Gayden return to write Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ script.
No specific plot details have been revealed for the next Shazam! movie yet, but the story will involve the heroes crossing paths with the sinister daughters of Atlas, one of the legendary figures from whom they derive their abilities. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu have been cast as Hespera and Kalypso, respectively, while the identity of their sister, played by West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler, hasn’t been revealed yet. And despite the Shazam! mid-credits scene teasing an alliance between Mark Strong’s Thaddeus Sivana and Mister Mind, Strong recently confirmed to CinemaBlend that Sivana will not appear in Fury of the Gods. So I suppose that means we’ll have to wait until Shazam! 3 to see these two cause trouble, if at all. Then there’s the matter of when Zachary Levi’s Shazam and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam will finally clash.
For now, assuming there aren’t more setbacks, we can count on Shazam! Fury of the Gods storming into theaters on June 2, 2023. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news about the sequel and other upcoming DC Comics movies.
