Warner Bros. Discovery has both “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “The Flash” coming next year, and the former of those will make a bit of history in terms of DC films – namely in terms of its villains.
Speaking with Empire (via CBR), director David F. Sandberg reveals that the villains of the sequel – the three Daughters of Atlas – are completely original and not based on any comic book characters.
That’s a first for a DCEU project and only of only four DC live-action movies that also featured solely original villains. The other three, however, don’t have the best track record – “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” “Steel”, and the Halle Berry-led “Catwoman”.
Sandberg spoke about how the villains were settled on, saying by doing so also allowed them to explore actual Greek mythology (in a key ‘god realm’ sequence) instead of just comic book lore:
“We landed there because Shazam’s powers come from Greek gods. So what if those powers were stolen from the gods, and now they want revenge?
We [also] have this dragon that’s sort of made of wood and emanates a fear effect, and a tree of life, a minotaur, a manticore… It was really cool diving into mythology, rather than comic books.”
The trio of baddies includes Helen Mirren as Hespera, Lucy Liu as Kalypso, and Rachel Zegler as Anthea. Sandberg says Mirren was at the top of his wishlist, and when she took on the role, he actually had to talk her down from doing her own action all the time:
“She wanted to do all her own stunts. We had to tell her sometimes, ‘We need an actual stuntperson to do that.'”
The helmer had a ball with the sequel’s action sequences, saying:
“It was fun destroying things. We wrecked so many cars, and dropped them from the sky. There’s one scene where we have cars flying up in the air and smashing into each other; we didn’t even put it all in the movie, because it was a lot of cars.”
Where Shazam will sit in the future of DC is unclear at this point. James Gunn and Peter Safran have taken over DC at Warner Bros. Pictures and are set to unveil their plans for the future in January as the DCEU is pushed aside for the DCU.
One person who has weighed in on this is Asher Angel, the young actor who portrays Shazam’s non-superhero side, Billy Batson. Speaking with Josh Wilding, Angel seemed upbeat about his character’s future:
“Man, I feel really good with Peter [Safran] and James coming on board. I mean, they’re obviously super talented, and super passionate, and I love how they’re creating this 10-year plan. And I think the DC Universe is going to be… there’s a lot of special movies to come, and I’m just ready for Shazam to be integrated with some other superhero movies…”
Whether Shazam will be a part of that ten-year plan is unclear at present, even with Safran having produced the current “Shazam” films.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is set to premiere in theaters on Friday, March 17th 2023.
