SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains major spoilers for Shazam! Fury Of The Gods. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk.
What does the future hold for Shazam in the big screen DC Universe? That is a question that doesn’t presently have a real answer. The version of the superhero played by Zachary Levi was introduced in the last few years as part of the DC Extended Universe, but that canon will soon come to an end with the birth of the new DC Universe that will be shepherded by DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. It hasn’t been made totally clear which established characters will “survive” the reboot, and that very much includes the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel.
Until answers arrive, however, at the very least we now know what direction the franchise might head in thanks to the Shazam! Fury Of The Gods mid- and post-credits scenes.
As has become standard in comic book blockbusters, the Shazam! sequel features a pair of sequences for audiences who stick around for a few minutes while the cast and filmmaker credits roll. While end credits scenes have a tendency to either be funny or teases for the future, these scenes are both, and they could definitely inform a Shazam! 3 (if it gets to happen).
What Happens In The Shazam! Fury Of The Gods End Credits Scenes
Following the flashy initial credits sequence that highlights above-the-line talent, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods launches a mid-credits bit featuring two characters with whom fans of the James Gunn DC series Peacemaker are familiar: Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee). Out in the middle of nowhere, they are walking to an abandoned gas station where they are meeting Shazam (Zachary Levi) – who is waiting for them and killing time by zapping bottles with lightning bolts.
After a bit of banter about the two knowing that his real identity is Billy Batson, they get down to business. The hero gets excited as he thinks that they are about to invite him to join the Justice League… but what he gets instead is an invitation to join the Justice Society. He’s happy about the news, but also clearly a bit deflated. Rather than being elated that he will be joining his first superhero team that doesn’t wholly consist of his foster siblings, he instead focuses in on the fact there are synonyms to “Justice” that would be available to use.
While the mid-credits scene teases heroes teaming up, the end credits is all about villains – specifically Doctor Sivana (Mark Strong) and Mister Mind (voiced by director David F. Sandberg). It begins as a callback to the first coda in Shazam! as Sivana wastes away in a prison cell with magical symbols drawn all over the walls.
At his window he hears the familiar voice of the talking extraterrestrial worm Mister Mind, and he is furious. He asks where his diminutive would-be associate has been for the last two years, and while Mind tries to dismiss the question, Sivana bluntly explains that he is a 57-year-old man waiting on the details of a vague plan. Mind counters that it takes him a long time to get places because of how short his legs are, and the Shazam! villain demands to know what the invertebrate is working on. Just as it seems like the worm is going to answer, he says that he still has one more thing he needs to do and departs – leaving Sivana to call out, “Oh, Goddamnit!”
Shazam Lives On To Fight With The Justice Society
Had everything gone according to plan for the DC Extended Universe in the last six months, we would view the Shazam! Fury Of The Gods mid-credits sequence particularly as an extension of the events from Black Adam – which introduced a big screen version of the Justice Society featuring Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). (Those who saw the film will remember that Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate ends up being killed in the third act.) In a world where Black Adam was a massive blockbuster hit, we would view the new teaser scene as a hint that a Shazam 3 would see the titular hero join the existing roster of the JSA… but that seems extremely doubtful now with the DC Universe reboot coming.
Even if Zachary Levi’s Shazam is kept in canon, it’s doubtful that anything that James Gunn and Peter Safran are planning with the DCU involves maintaining elements of Black Adam from the DCEU. That being said, that doesn’t mean there isn’t potentially a future where Shazam is still able to join the Justice Society; it would just be a Justice Society different than the one that was on the big screen in 2022. When the events that play out in director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash shake up the multiverse this summer, one of the outcomes could still be Billy Batson joining his first non-family-centric team.
This is certainly a circumstance heavy on “ifs” “coulds” and “woulds,” but the possibility does exist.
Mister Mind And Doctor Sivana Have Unfinished Business
If I were to pick one of the two teases in the end credits scenes that could eventually be satisfied in the DC Universe, my gut tells me it would be the second one. The bit with Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind is most definitely intended to be read as a meta joke – one that points at the fact that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods doesn’t follow-up the mid-credits scene from Shazam! by having the characters as the central antagonists – but it further demonstrates that they have an entertaining dynamic together, and there is plenty of comic book precedent that is waiting to be explored on the big screen.
Not only is there a lot of fun to be had in seeing Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind team up to try and destroy Shazam and the Shazamily, but the characters together open the door for us to see the first live-action incarnation of the Monster Society Of Evil (a threat that could perhaps require Shazam and his siblings to join forces with the DC Universe’s Justice Society).
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is now playing in theaters everywhere. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for the latest news about the film and where things stand with the titular character in the DC Universe. For now, you can learn about everything in the works from DC Studios with our Upcoming DC Movies guide (which includes not only DCU titles, but also DC Studios’ Elseworlds blockbusters, like The Batman: Part II.
