This coming weekend is the DC FanDome, Warner Bros’ inaugural online event that will give us 24 hours of DC Comics-related geekery including a lineup of DCEU films. One of those films will certainly be Shazam! 2, the sequel to director David F. Sandberg’s super fun 2019 superhero movie. There probably won’t really be anything shown off outside of some announcements though, seeing as how the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the film’s release to November 2022 with production only scheduled to start early next year.
So no, there currently isn’t a second Shazam! yet, but that apparently has stopped people from already posting “reviews” for it. That’s what Sandberg discovered when he had a look at Letterboxd, the film-centric social media service. People commenting on movies before they’re even released is unfortunately not a new thing, as we often see folks trashing films they’ve never seen just because of pre-conceived opinions about it. These were not quite like those though, being far more random and innocuous. But Sandberg, known for his humourous approach to things, was not one to have these comments fade into obscurity, and so created a fake Shazam 2 teaser trailer just for them.
I have to admit, as funny as the comments were (who wouldn’t want to paint Jack Dylan Grazer’s nails and dance to Fleetwood Mac?), the title treatment of “SHAZAM!!” really made me chuckle. Until I realized that you just know somebody at WB is going to see that and think it’s a good idea.
As for the sequel, other than the expected returning cast of Asher Angel as the young Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as his superpowered adult alter-ego, and the aforementioned Grazer as Billy’s foster brother Freddie Freeman, we don’t really know anything about it. The rest of Billy’s foster siblings – who got super powers of their own at the end of the first film – will probably be back as well, but we have no idea who they will be facing off against.
Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam – Shazam’s classic comic book nemesis – was supposed to be in the first film, once upon a time, before it was decided to rather establish the anti-hero in his own movie. That film will be at DC FanDome as well with Johnson teasing a first look at it last week.
With Black Adam doing his own thing – and probably setting up an eventual showdown with Shazam in a possible third movie somewhere down the line – chances are that Shazam 2 will see Mr. Mind as the villain as seeing as how the character was teased in the first film’s post-credits scene. Due to the fact that Mr. Mind is actually just a worm (okay, so he’s a super-intelligent alien worm with immense mental powers) there will probably be a secondary villain (Mark Strong’s Sivana could return) or Mr. Mind will have Shazam face off against his siblings thanks to some mind control. We’ll find out more this coming Saturday.
Last Updated: August 17, 2020
