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‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ Director on End-Credits & Shazam’s DCU Future

Mar 21, 2023


Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the GodsBefore the Greek pantheon came for blood in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with director David. F. Sandberg to dig into some of those lingering questions audiences might have after the lights came up. Considering the recent DCU acquisition, and the new directions James Gunn and Peter Safran will be taking, a lot of fans are wondering where that leaves Zachary Levi’s Shazam. Especially after those end-credits.

The long-awaited sequel saw Billy Batson (Angel Asher), or rather his super alter-ego Shazam, grappling with not only his new powers, but with the danger that puts his new family in. Fury of the Gods sees many of the first film’s cast reprising their roles, including scene-stealing Jack Dylan Grazer, and Grace Caroline Currey who gets to step into both of Mary Bromfield’s shoes. The movie also introduces the Daughters of Atlas, played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler, who we saw give the Shazamily a run for their money. Other familiar faces you may have seen include Wonder Woman’s Gal Gadot and Mark Strong as Dr. Sivana/Mr. Mind, and if these additions raised questions, you’re not alone.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
During their conversation, Sandberg reveals tons of hidden Easter eggs, including some that seem to indicate the DC universe and The Conjuring universe may not be too far removed, considering Sandberg helmed Annabelle: Creation. The filmmaker also discusses almost having another Henry Cavill moment with the end-credit scene, teases who was originally supposed to make an appearance, and lets us in on what’s going on with Shazam in the DCU future and what that Sivana/Mr. Mind cameo meant. For all of this and more, check out the video in the player above, or you can read the full interview below.

COLLIDER: I’m curious, how did you guys decide on the title? Was it almost something else?

DAVID F. SANDBERG: It was marketing that came up with that. We actually didn’t know, we were just calling it Shazam! 2, and then marketing was like, “Yeah, how about this title?” It was like, “Well, that’s actually pretty cool,” you know?

It’s always tricky. Like with Annabelle: Creation, that took a lot of working because, originally, it was Annabelle 2, which I was fine with, and then they had Annabelle Begins, and I was like, “That’s like Batman Begins, can’t do that.” It took quite a while. But here, that was like their first thing, like, “How about Fury of the Gods? Sounds pretty cool.”

Image via Warner Bros.

Speaking of Annabelle, there are a few Easter eggs in this movie that people should look out for. Can you sort of point people in the right direction on some?

SANDBERG: Yeah, they’re kind of all over. I mean, the scene with Annabelle in it has quite a lot of them. There are both plushies of different characters from DC, and there’s even, hidden in the alphabet poster behind them there, you have Starrow in there and some lesser-known characters. Then I have, also, references to old Italian horror directors like Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci, and even very personal references to the schools I went to as a kid that just people in Jönköping, Sweden will go like, “Oh, yeah, I know what that is!” So there’s a lot of it.

Are there other scenes that have things that people should look out for?

SANDBERG: Well, I’m in the movie in one scene.

You can’t miss you.

SANDBERG: Yeah, no, that was fun too. You know, [it is] the first time I’m having my face in the movie, usually, it’s just my voice or my creature performer, or something like that.

I laughed when I saw you on screen. One of the things about this movie is, like the first movie, you push a little bit in terms of the horror, or the violence if you will. How much does DC or the MPAA say to you, “Do we have to go this far?” What are those discussions like?

SANDBERG: No, it’s a little bit because even with the studio– I mean, the studio consists of several people. So sometimes you have some people go like, “Yeah, go for it! Go for your horror roots,” while others go like, “Ehh…” But, I think I have a pretty good grasp of what you can get away with in a PG-13 movie, or this kind that works for families as well.

But I’m often a bit surprised about what people react to. Like in this one, there’s a teacher that dies, who dies off-screen, but a lot of people reacted quite strongly to that. I think that’s because of [Jack Dylan Grazer’s] performance in that because you see the anguish and how much it affects him. So I guess that’s why people reacted to that.

Image via Warner Bros

I also think it’s the actor playing that role–

SANDBERG: That you don’t want to see dead.

Well, people just expect that person is going to be okay.

SANDBERG: Yeah, that was actually the point of that casting, of like, “We should cast someone who it would be like, ‘Oh it’s that guy!’” So you expect him to be around and then he’s not.

So, you managed to bring another DC actor, specifically I’m talking about Gal [Gadot] and Wonder Woman, into this movie. How did that happen because it’s a key plot point in the movie?

SANDBERG: Yeah. No, it was there from the beginning. I mean, the funny thing was, in the first movie we were gonna have Henry [Cavill] show up as Superman. Then, when we were shooting that scene, they were like, “Well, Henry is not gonna make it on this day, so we’ll shoot it with a stand-in and then we’ll have to pick up his coverage later on.” It’s like, “Okay…” So, we shot it like that, and then the Henry thing fell apart and we couldn’t do it. So we had to just use the stand-in footage, and that’s why it ends before you see his face.

So for this one, Wonder Woman was in the script and I was like, “It’s not really gonna happen.” I mean, it makes sense because of the mythology and the Greek gods and everything, but it’s like, “I don’t believe it’s gonna happen.” And then, when we were shooting that scene, or the majority of it, it was the same thing, like, “Oh, you’re gonna have to shoot with a stand-in and then we’ll pick her pieces up because she’s not gonna make it here to Atlanta at this time.” It’s like, “Sure. Yeah.” So that’s when I started thinking, “Okay, so when we don’t get her, how do we solve it?” Because it’s such a big– we have to have it in the movie. So I was like, “Okay, we need some other god then, I guess. Can we have [Helen Mirren’s] character actually survive? It’s gonna be so lame if she shows up.” But that was sort of my Plan B.

But then it actually happened and we were actually able to shoot with her, which made me very happy. Because, I mean, we poke fun at the headless cameo in this movie, and we could not have done that if she didn’t actually show up at the end, I think, because people would have just been so pissed off.

When it happened, I was like, “They’re not doing this again…” but there was a payoff, so I was like, “Oh, this is great.”

SANDBERG: Even when she does actually show up, the first shot, we framed it like that, but pretty quickly it’s like, “No, no, look, look, she’s here! Don’t leave the theater, don’t get angry!” [Laughs]

So the film has two end-credit scenes. The first one feels like it was written by James Gunn. Was it?

SANDBERG: No. It was actually supposed to be other characters, but then right before we were about to shoot it that fell apart and we couldn’t use those characters. I was like, “But we built the whole set and everything,” you know? That gas station and everything was totally built and I was like, “I love the set,” and we had the time. I was like, “Can we do something here? Come on, we can’t just tear it down.” And then Peter Safran, who produced this movie, also produced Peacemaker, so he made some calls and made that happen, which I was very thankful for.

I obviously have to ask you, what was the original plan?

SANDBERG: They were characters who are in the Justice Society, which would make more sense when you see the scene. Because we didn’t change much about the scene.

So, can I ask when did you film those end-credit scenes? Was it pre- the whole change of DC?

SANDBERG: Oh, yeah. No, it was way before all that stuff. Yeah.

And with the second scene, that obviously is a Shazam! 3 possibility. How did you decide on that scene?

SANDBERG: Well, more than a Shazam! 3 thing, it was actually– you know, Mr. Mind and Sivana [were] going to be in this movie. Originally, we were like, “Oh well, it’s part of Mr. Mind’s bigger plan to bring the goddesses, to enable them to come to Earth because he wanted them to fight Shazam,” but it was just too much movie, you know? Because even without it, the movie is two hours and 10 minutes long. So we had to cut it, but it was also like, people are gonna be like, “Well, what happened with the worm guy from the first one? You have to show that.”

So, I’m glad that we at least got to have this little scene to just show that, “Oh no, he’s still out there. We haven’t forgotten about him. He’s working on something.”

Image via Warner Bros.

So, I don’t know, obviously, and I’m sure you don’t know what the future is with Shazam and DC, and everything, but I’ve heard that the Flash movie essentially resets a lot of the DC universe. Have you spoken to James and Peter about the possibilities of what could happen in the future, or is it one of these things where, “Let’s see how the movie does, and then we’ll make some conversation.”?

SANDBERG: Yeah. I don’t know what the full plans are, but what they have said is that since Shazam is sort of its own thing– like the stories in both these movies haven’t really intersected with the bigger story, and they’re like, “Well, nothing in Shazam contradicts anything that we’re doing for the future of DC.” So, that’s good. So nothing needed to change, and you could do more Shazam, I guess, but we’ll see what happens.

I believe you’re doing Below at Netflix, is that your next gig?

SANDBERG: Possibly. I have a few things going on that are pretty close to shooting. I’ll go with whatever goes first, you know? Because I’m just eager to make more, and especially horror after having done two Shazam! movies in a row. So we’ll see. It might be Below, it might be something else I’m doing with different studios around town. So, we’ll see.

Yeah, I know a lot of directors, and it’s amazing, I think people outside the industry don’t understand that it’s literally whatever script, whatever all aligns, that comes together with scheduling and the script and the studio that says, “You have a green light.” That’s the one you’re gonna go to.

SANDBERG: Yeah, it’s a bit weird because, to me, it’s like, I like to focus, “Okay. I know I’m doing this next and then this,” or whatever. But yeah, you have to have a lot of things going at once because some thing’s also just never happen, unfortunately. So yeah, you just have to have a lot of things going and then you’ll see what sticks and what moves first.

Image via Warner Bros.

Yeah, I think people think that the director has, sometimes, more control.

SANDBERG: Yeah, because a lot of things can happen, you know. It’s weird ‘cause sometimes even studios will buy something and go, “Yeah, we want to do it,” [get] in a bidding war and everything, and then they’ll go just like, “No, it doesn’t fit in anymore.” Sometimes you can have, you know, regime changes and things like that, as well, where the new guy comes in and it’s like, “Oh, out with everything old,” you know? It’s a weird business.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters now. For more from Sandberg, check out our interview with him on the IMAX experience below.

Disclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by filmibee.
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