Although Shazam! Fury of the Gods wrapped production back in August, the film’s premiere is still two years away, and no one seems more bummed out about this than Zachary Levi. If it weren’t for the COVID-19 outbreak, the sequel would be arriving next April. But during a recent interview with Collider, Levi discussed why the film will be worth the wait.
Mainstream audiences may have been unfamiliar with Billy Batson’s alter-ego when the original Shazam! opened in 2018. Regardless, the film received top marks from critics and fans alike, so anticipation is understandably high for the next installment. And according to Levi, the last film’s success gave them more resources to make Fury of the Gods even better.
“I will say that I genuinely — and this is not just lip service — I’m really proud of the first one, I think we made a really, really good movie,” said Levi. “I think the second one is better [and] I think that we had more time, we had more budget. We had, essentially, the entire cast returning, and we all knew our characters a little bit more; we could kind of sit into them a little bit more. Henry Gayden, who wrote the first script, wrote the second, and he did a fantastic job doing so. Everything just clicked even a little bit more and a little bit more.”
“And also the kids have grown up a little bit more,” continued Levi. “So even the sensibilities of them become even slightly more mature which brings it closer to my or other people’s adult minds, so there’s even more connection there, I think. The action’s great, the comedy’s great, the relationships are great. The bad guys, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu, are fantastic. I’m very proud of it. I want it to come out sooner than June of 2023.”
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Levi went on to explain why the wait for Fury of the Gods is so long. But he also suggested that Warner Bros. could end up changing its mind about the film’s current release date.
“Fortunately, we are amongst a huge group of very cool characters and actors that play those characters,” added Levi. “They’re already more established in a lot of ways because of the DC movies that preexisted before we came in. So we’re a little bit of a JV coming into the varsity squad, and there’s a lot of titles that need to come out to the world. I get it; studios have to make a concerted effort about not cannibalizing your own titles. You can’t release them too close to each other, otherwise you might cannibalize each other. Plus, you have to take into consideration all the other studios’ releases and all that stuff. So that’s where it is — but, you never know, maybe it’ll come out sooner. Here’s hoping and praying, I hope.”
Shazam!: Fury of the Gods will hit theaters on June 2, 2023.
Are you hoping to see the film come out sooner rather than later? Let us know in the comment section below!
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