Every superhero movie fan knows that you can’t leave the theater until the very last credits have rolled, but that is extra important information for moviegoers seeing Shazam: Fury of the Gods. There are two additional scenes to the movie once the credits begin, the first containing major hints about the future of the character of Shazam (Zachary Levi) and the end-credits scene teasing big things if DC were to go forward with a third Shazam movie.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Proceed with caution.
After Billy (Asher Angel) is revived by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in the final scenes of the film, the mid-credits sequence teases where Shazam might be heading in the larger DC cinematic universe. As Shazam is doing some lightning target practice, he’s approached by Peacemaker’s Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee) on behalf of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) with an invite to the Justice Society.
“That [scene was created] before [James Gunn] became the boss. It was actually supposed to be different characters, but then we had to change it last minute after we had already built the set,” Fury of the Gods director David Sandberg told a group of journalists including GameSpot at a press lunch. “We had the time and everything and we still wanted to do the scene, so Peter Safran, who produces Peacemaker, made some calls and thankfully, Jen Holland and Steve Agee were able to come down and do that scene. We still got to use that set and everything.”
As for Shazam himself, he is beyond stoked at the possibility of Shazam joining a larger group of heroes–even though no formal announcements about a Justice Society team-up have been made under Gunn’s leadership.
“My hopes and dreams are the same that I’ve had since the beginning which was, I would love to be in a team,” Zachary Levi told GameSpot at the Fury of the Gods press junket. “The really fun thing is that within our own franchise, we have a team superhero movie, so I already get [that] a little bit, but then to also work with other superheroes and another team, whatever team that is gong to be, sign me up! I want to be a part of that.”
While Shazam himself may fit in with Gunn’s vision for the next phase of DC movies, what will happen with the rest of the Shazamily is more unclear. They are characters created by former DC chief Geoff Johns. Still, the end credits scene of Fury of the Gods teased what might be in store for the Shazamily if a third film is green lit. Mr. Mind, a literal diabolical talking worm (voiced by Sandberg) returns in the scene, visiting Dr. Siivana in prison.
While no details of his plan for world domination are revealed, he confirms that he is still working on a plan to take down the Shazamily and claim their powers. According to Sandberg, Mr. Mind was the original villain for Fury of the Gods, before the plot became too convoluted and the team pivoted, leaving Shazam’s greatest foe to be tackled in a later film.
“At first we were like, we’ll continue [with] Mr. Mind and Sivana. They’re the ones who bring the Gods to this world,” the director explained. “Mr. Mind had this big plan, but it was just too much story to tell. Even without it, the movie is two hours and 10 minutes…I’m glad we got to do a little fun thing at the end because I know people are going to be like, ‘Wait, what happened with the worm?’ So he’s still working on something. It’s just going to take some time.”
Part of the decision to push the Mr. Mind showdown was also to maintain the charm of the first movie without turning Shazam into a full-on fantasy film.
“[The] later comics do go into all of these types of worlds, with the doors, and it becomes very sort of fantasy. We did go down the path and we talked about, ‘Oh, they go to animal land. That’s how we can bring in Tawky Tawny and things like that,’ but it didn’t feel right. What’s so good about the first one is that it’s sort of a fantastical thing happening in a pretty grounded world. If you have something fantastical happening in a fantastical place, then it all becomes sort of fantasy. I’m not a big fan of that. That’s when we scrapped it and started over with this idea of, ‘Well, his power are from the gods, maybe they’re coming to get the powers back.'”
We’ll have to see if Mr. Mind’s plan will ever get to see the light of day or if the little worm will be stuck crawling through the pipes of a maximum security prison forever.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods hit theaters on March 17.
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