‘Shazam!’ Sequel to Begin Filming Next Year
The sequel to Shazam! is moving forward at DC Films, and it seems as though the project will likely begin filming less than a year from now.
Speaking to AP News, lead actor Zachary Levi expressed gratitude toward DC Films for presenting him the opportunity to star in the film, which he sees as a launching pad for his career in movies. Levi previously portrayed Thor supporting character Fandral in The Dark World and had a brief cameo in Ragnarok, with the latter film ensuring that he won’t be appearing in the setting again. But the actor also revealed an interesting tidbit: the sequel to Shazam! is already being written, with a likely start of production occurring between Spring 2020 and Summer 2020. Earlier reports suggest that the first movie’s screenwriter (Henry Gayden) and director (David Sandberg) will both be returning, along with the ensemble assembled from the first installment.
This news should come as relief to anyone who speculated that Warner Bros. and New Line saw the lower-budgeted superhero movie as a financial disappointment; while Shazam! brought in a total of around $363M, and it may have brought in more if it had a release date that wasn’t so close to the release of Avengers: Endgame, the movie was inexpensive by superhero movie standards and brought in over three times its reported $80M-$100M production budget. For frame of comparison, that’s pretty close to the amount that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse brought in last year, in terms of both expenses and returns; that movie is getting a sequel and a spin-off, much like Shazam! is with this movie and Black Adam (starring Dwayne Johnson). As it stands, it appears that DC Films are focused on getting a great return-on-investment relative to the budget of the films they produced, and garnering great critical and audience reception with each movie over each movie making well over a billion dollars, although the success of Aquaman ensures that the latter is not off the table.
The untitled Shazam! sequel is being developed at DC Films.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
