Shazam! Fury of the Gods is planning to kickstart production in early 2021, star Zachary Levi confirmed in a recent interview. Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! premiered in 2019 and showcased a comedic superhero narrative based on the eponymous DC Comics character. The first Shazam! starred Levi as the titular superhero, while Asher Angel featured as Shazam's orphaned teenage alter-ego, Billy Batson. Angel's Batson grows up in a foster family along with several other siblings, including his best friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer). He subsequently acquires superpowers from an ancient wizard and transforms into an iconic superhero, who along with his siblings, takes down the evil genius Dr. Thaddeus Sivana and his demonic enablers, the Seven Deadly Sins.
Shazam! was a rousing success at the box office and among critics. The movie earned an impressive $366 million against a production budget of $80-100 million, and its light-hearted tone and earnest performances won it several nominations at the Saturn and Teen Choice Awards. Its marketable stature thus prompted Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema to order a sequel, which was first scheduled for an April 2022 release. But the movie was later delayed to November 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sandberg has mostly been tight-lipped about the plot of the new movie. However, he revealed the title of the forthcoming sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, at the DC FanDome last month. At the time being, Shazam! 2 has not even begun principal photography, but the cameras will be rolling soon.
While appearing on Dan Fogler's 4D Xperience, Levi discussed the current plan for Shazam! 2, which has been in a standstill since the COVID-19 pandemic took a turn for the worse. Despite the ongoing delay, it sounds like the team will be gearing up to start the shoot in the near future:
"They announced that we were gonna do a sequel pretty much right after we premiered. They knew we were tracking well enough, they were happy enough with the numbers. So they have been steadily and earnestly working on the script for the sequel and I think Q1 of next year is the idea. COVID has kind of made everything a little bit up in the air, but very much the intent is to make another one. We gotta get to it fast, the kids are growing fast."
As Levi alludes to, there's a sense of urgency to start filming Shazam! 2 as quickly as possible. All of the actors from the first film, including the young stars, are poised to reprise their roles in the sequel. The studio, therefore, wants to commence principal photography soon, since the younger actors are growing up fast. If shooting doesn't start in a timely fashion, then the kids may be too old to play their parts convincingly, which would obviously be problematic for Sandberg and the crew. The original film's cast was a key reason why the movie worked so well, and it'd be difficult to recast the Shazam family.
Of course, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is another variable that makes things difficult. In recent weeks, multiple productions have restarted, but it hasn't been entirely smooth sailing. Jurassic World: Dominion had to alter its location shooting schedule due to an outbreak and The Batman production is on hold again after star Robert Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus. Hopefully, things will be a little better by the time Shazam! Fury of the Gods starts shooting, but there's no guarantee the pandemic will be over then. The studio needs to come up with a plan that will keep everyone safe before they boot up production.
Source: Dan Fogler's 4D Xperience
