[This story contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.]
If that ultimate end-credits scene of Shazam! Fury of the Gods appeared acquainted, it was speculated to.
After a protracted battle in opposition to the daughters of Atlas — Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler)— the DC sequel ends with Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and the Shazam! household safely again collectively, rebuilding their house after it was destroyed within the ultimate struggle. All of them have their powers restored, and Billy lastly learns his true superhero title — it’s Shazam, clearly. And as soon as credit roll on what’s doubtlessly Levi’s final outing because the superhero, there are two end-credits sequences.
The ultimate end-credits scene calls again to the post-credit guarantees of the primary movie, which featured Physician Sivana (Mark Sturdy) conspiring for revenge in his jail cell with an unlikely customer — Mister Thoughts, a supervillain worm with a robotic voice who’s a serious Shazam! foe from the comics.
This time round, the scene opens to Mister Thoughts and Sivana assembly as soon as once more. Two years have handed because the occasions of the primary film, and Sivana has been patiently ready for the worm genius to assist him get away of his cell, so he can enact his vengeance on Billy.
“The place within the hell have you ever been?” Sivana exclaims. “I’m caught in a concrete field, surrounded by lunatics, ready for a worm.” Mister Thoughts then explains that regardless of his genius and telepathic powers, slithering takes time. He doesn’t have legs or wings, which understandably makes touring tough.
Whereas the sequel could have initially supposed to concentrate on Mister Thoughts because the villain, co-writers Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan in the end elected to go a unique route by introducing the daughters of Atlas. In a current interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gayden revealed that the Fury of the Gods‘ ultimate credit scene began out as a enjoyable writing train.
“I wrote that really on a lark,” the author stated. “Nobody requested me to jot down that. We’d performed all these Mister Thoughts and Sivana drafts, and in the end discarded them. And so randomly, I used to be like, effectively, it’s simply so unhappy to lose them,” recalled Gayden. “So for enjoyable, as a joke, I wrote that. Then months go by, and we’re entering into pre-production, and I used to be like, ought to we shoot this as a post-credits factor?”
Gayden remembers that former DC Movies boss Walter Hamada “had forgotten about it, however was like, ‘That is the most effective factor you’ve ever written.’”
It seems that there have been even earlier drafts of the sequel script the place Mister Thoughts and Sivana teamed up.
“There’s a scene the place Sivana breaks out of jail with out having to raise a finger due to Mister Thoughts’s assist, which is certainly one of my favourite scenes I’ve written,” the author stated. “There was stuff there that was nice, however none of it actually serviced a pure development for Billy. It felt a little bit redundant. It felt like we have been doing the final film simply on an even bigger scale.”
As an alternative, he and Morgan wished to concentrate on the query of household and what that might imply for Billy, who by no means had one earlier than.
“The pure subsequent chapter could be he’s going to carry on too tight as a result of he’s terrified to lose that household,” stated Gayden.
As an alternative, it made extra sense to introduce villains woh themselves have been household within the daughters of Atlas.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods comes at a time of change for DC. James Gunn and Shazam! producer Peter Safran have been tapped final yr to guide the studio’s movie, TV and animation efforts, and Shazam! — like Henry Cavill’s Superman — was left off their upcoming slate. The franchise’s future is up within the air, although the mushy field workplace coming in for Fury of the Gods hurts the chance of a sequel.
Nonetheless, if the co-writers have been to proceed the franchise, Gayden want to doubtlessly see Physician Sivana and Mister Thoughts to ultimately have their second within the solar. “If we have now Shazam! 3, it will likely be enjoyable if we are able to deliver them again,” Gayden stated.
Added the author: “But additionally, if we had Shazam! 3 and we go a unique route with villains, I’ve at all times wished the post-credits to proceed to be Sivana and Mister Thoughts. I simply thought it was the flavour of Shazam!, the truth that it sort of low-key makes enjoyable of the tropes of flicks. If the post-credit scene is at all times making enjoyable of post-credit scenes, I believe that could possibly be actually enjoyable.”
