Shazam: The war with Dwayne Johnson, changes at DC… is the future of the superhero in danger?

Warning, this article contains spoilers for Shazam 2, and in particular for the two post-credits scenes.

Will he come back or not?

Warner announced a few months ago a shake-up of its film teams and a shift in strategy from its DC subsidiary. The new bosses are now called James Gunn and Peter Safran, and they’ve already reshaped the entire future of the superhero brand. This new era will begin in 2025 with an all-new Superman movie, but without Henry Cavill.

But what exactly does this mean for the DC franchises that have already been used on film, and more specifically for Shazam? Because Gunn and Safran have yet to discuss the future of the red-suited superhero.

Wrath of the Gods – which introduces the Daughters of Atlas to the screen – may not have any impact, which will deprive a large number of fans of the motivation to see it in the cinema. It’s enough to make director David F. Sandberg took to Twitter to put the rumors to rest:

“David, I don’t think I’m going to see the movie because of everything going on around DC. This makes the movie less interesting because the future of DC is uncertain. If you can tell us if Shazam has a role in this“.

“It really won’t be if people don’t go see the movie. What I’m told is that there’s nothing in the Shazam movies that conflicts with DC’s future plans. So there’s a chance it could happen, but you’d have to go see the movie for that.”

A post-credits scene that raises questions

DC – like Marvel – has always relied on post-credits scenes to hit the wagons with the next movies. In the case of Shazam 2, we did not expect anything. Or at best a Flash teaser for example. But the director surprised everyone by showing two characters from the Peacemaker series arriving to bring Shazam to the Justice Society of America. Proof that the thinking heads at DC are willing to continue exploiting the character in film, even if he remains fairly obscure.

As for the second post-credits scene, it marks the return of Mark Strong – the big bad from the first installment – and the caterpillar Mr. Mind, as if to imply that they will play a more important role later on.

But what could hurt Shazam’s film future is the apparent war between Dwayne “Black Adam” Johnson and Zachary Levi. The former refused the latter a cameo in his film and vetoed the appearance of superheroes Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) in that famous final scene. Bisbilles, about which we will tell you in more detail in this article.

Black Adam’s box office slump and Shazam 2’s rather disappointing numbers don’t seem to be working in their favor. Unless James Gunn and Peter Safran close the door on Shazam 3, the future of the character will surely be revealed in the coming days.