The next function will get into main spoilers for the brand new film Shazam: Fury of the Gods. You don’t want to learn any additional if you wish to go into the brand new DC film unspoiled, so please, proceed with warning.
There was quite a lot of dialog about the place David Sandberg’s new film Shazam: Fury of the Gods suits into the evolving DC Universe. Due to upcoming adjustments to the proposed continuity of the universe, watching DC films so as could be difficult, and a number of the movies taking place between now and when James Gunn reboots the world with Superman: Legacy really feel like they is perhaps in some type of limbo. Gunn has stated that there can be room for films like Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle within the panorama that he and Peter Safran are laying out, and now that I’ve seen the Shazam sequel, I’m understanding what he would possibly imply.
The upcoming DC films slate touches on some new characters who’ve but to get the large display screen remedy, from The Authority and The Flash to new iterations of Supergirl and Swamp Factor. But it surely’s sounding like Gunn and Safran is perhaps holding on to a couple of the artistic components launched within the earlier model of the DC on display screen, identified lovingly because the SnyderVerse. Hints to which might be included in each the top of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and the film’s mid-credits scenes. Let’s speak about what occurs in them, and the way I feel they level to Shazam’s inclusion in future DC storytelling for years to come back.
Surprise Girl Resurrects Shazam
Close to the top of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Billy Batson (Zachary Levi) sacrifices himself to defeat Kalypso (Lucy Liu), essentially the most highly effective Daughter of Atlas. He does this by breaking the workers that offers Kalypso her energy, regardless that meaning nobody can revive Billy. Properly, not fairly true. One particular person has the facility of the gods, and may restore the workers in order that Billy could be resurrected, and that’s Surprise Girl (Gal Gadot). Whereas the Shazam household stands round Billy’s grave mourning his loss, Diana Prince seems, repairs the workers, and brings Billy again to life. She encourages him to maintain preventing the great combat, and conserving humanity secure.
Whereas the unique Shazam film established the truth that Billy lives in the identical universe as Superman, the contractually-obligated gag that took Henry Cavill’s head out of body hedged the guess of Shazam being a part of the DCEU, as established. Nevertheless, Gadot doesn’t get lower. She seems in full Surprise Girl attire, and interacts with Billy and the Shazam household. She makes it very clear that she is aware of who he’s, and that she can be taking note of the savior work that he pulls off.
The scene just isn’t closure. It’s very a lot a “goodbye on, child.” Which might make sense if each Gadot and Levi have been to stay round, in character, within the films that James Gunn and Peter Safran are planning to launch. Which takes us to the primary mid-credit scene.
Shazam Is Recruited For The Justice Society
So, the Surprise Girl scene doesn’t finish the connection between Billy Batson and Diana Prince, and establishes the truth that they may undoubtedly cross paths sooner or later. However the mid-credits scene goes additional, and tells us the place we’d even see Zachary Levi’s Shazam subsequent.
Within the scene, Peacemaker and Suicide Squad co-stars Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee seem as Emilia Harcourt and John Economos, and so they recruit Shazam for the Justice Society. He’s bummed. He thought he was going to get to affix the Justice League. However he might need to accept the B staff… and that helps clarify how James Gunn and Peter Safran are conserving him accessible for doable use in upcoming tasks.
The final time that we noticed Emilia Harcourt, she was working alongside Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) within the disappointing DC movie Black Adam. She has been established as being a part of Waller’s staff in each James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and his HBO Max collection Peacemaker. Utilizing her and Economos on this mid-credit scene was no accident. DC wished to ascertain a connection between Shazam and characters that we count on to come back again within the Gunn/Safran storyverse.
Why is that this necessary? As a result of we all know that Davis’s Amanda Waller is getting a by-product HBO collection as a part of the Gods and Monsters saga Gunn and Safran introduced. And in Black Adam, Waller was the one coordinating with the JSA (in addition to Superman), imprisoning Black Adam in her high-tech jail. We didn’t know 100% which characters have been going to proceed within the DCU after The Flash. And it’s all nonetheless doable that these scenes don’t find yourself main wherever. (See, once more, the Henry Cavill tease in Black Adam.) However each the ending and the credit scene recommend avenues ahead… not lifeless ends.
The underside line is that I left Shazam: Fury of the Gods with much more hope for the superhero’s future within the DCU than I anticipated, given the truth that it exists in a limbo created by movies that have been greenlit earlier than the brand new regime took over. It may have been simple for Gunn and Safran to let Shazam play out, and are available to an in depth, in order that they may begin over (and presumably recast). And perhaps the Harcourt and Economos scene was meant to ascertain ties to Black Adam, if Black Adam was a success? We might by no means know for sure, however each of those scenes lead me to consider that Shazam has a vibrant future within the DC Universe transferring ahead.