‘Shazam!’ Recap Before ‘Fury of the Gods!’: What Can We Expect from the Sequel?

The first Shazam! starring Zachary Levi, was released in April 2019. The film received positive reviews for its family story, lighthearted tone, and sense of fun, making it a great movie for the whole family to watch during the holiday season. The film grossed #366.1 million worldwide, which may not seem like much for a superhero blockbuster, but it was enough for Warner Bros to greenlight a sequel. Interestingly, the spin-off film Black Adam grossed $392 million, but it is considered a disappointment because the budget was twice as big.

Four years after the original movie’s release, Shazam returns with its direct sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg returns to helm the sequel, and most of the main cast from the first movie will also return. Although the first movie was labeled as one of the better DCEU installments, plenty of things have happened with that universe, and it’s unknown if there will be a threequel or even some place for Levi’s Shazam in James Gunn’s new DCU in the future. But we’ll worry about that later. Let’s focus our energy on excitement for the second Shazam movie, which will hit theaters later this month.

What happened in the first Shazam movie?

The first Shazam movie introduced us to Billy Batson, but before we met him, we also met young Thaddeus Sivana. In 1974, Thaddeus found himself in the Rock of Eternity, a mystic temple where the wizard Shazam had spent centuries looking for a champion pure of heart to bestow his power. After the seven Sins tempted Thaddeus, Shazam deemed him unworthy of his power, leaving Thaddeus frustrated.

Jumping to the present day, we meet a 14-year-old foster child Billy Batson, who is looking for his birth mother. After locking some police officers in a store to use their computer to find her, he is placed in a foster home with five other children, including a superhero fan Freddy Freeman. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Sivana succeeds in finding the Rock of Eternity. After freeing the Sins, he becomes their vessel and uses the power of the Sins to kill his father and brother.

One day at school, after Billy defends Freddy from bullies, he runs to the subway, where he is transported to the Rock of Eternity. The wizard names Billy as the next champion, and once he says the wizard’s name, Billy is turned into an adult (but still goofy) superhero known as Shazam. Not knowing what to do, Billy confides in Freddy, who tries to help Billy to explore his powers. Freddy starts posting viral videos of a new superhero, and Billy starts skipping school to use his powers for fame and money.

Soon after, Sivana attacks Billy in an effort to steal his powers, but even though terrified because he never faces a villain before, Billy discovers his powers and manages to escape. Billy learns the location of his biological mother, but once he visits her, he is left heartbroken after learning that they were not really accidentally separated — she abandoned him.

After learning Shazam’s true identity, Sivana kidnaps his foster siblings and asks him again to surrender his powers. But the children attack Sivana and escape, while Shazam learns that Sivana is vulnerable without the power of the Sins. After Sivana chases them to a winter carnival, Shazam uses the wizard’s staff to share his power with his siblings, turning them all into adult superheroes like him. While his siblings are dealing with the Sins, Shazam defeats Sivana.

After locking the Sins away again, the Shazam Family calls the Rock of Eternity their superhero lair. Billy accepts his foster parents and siblings as his family, and as Shazam, he attends lunch at school with his siblings, accompanied by Superman.

What can we expect from the sequel?

With all of his siblings as superheroes, Billy will embark with his entire family on another superhero journey. The first two trailers showed us that the family will now have to face the Daughters of Atlas, who think that Billy and his family stole the power of the gods. The daughters of Atlas are Kalypso and Hespera, and Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren, respectively, play them. Rachel Zegler will also have an important role as Anthea, the third daughter of Atlas.

The majority of the cast from the previous film are reprising their respective roles in the sequel. The most important change is Grace Caroline Currey (née Fulton), who played Mary Bromfield, Billy’s older foster sister, who will now also play her superhero form, replacing Michelle Borth from the first film. Rizwan Manji, who played Jamil in James Gunn’s DCEU series Peacemaker, will appear in this film as an unknown character. Lotta Losten, the director David F. Sandberg’s wife, who played Dr. Lynn Crosby in the first movie, will play a new character in the sequel.

Henry Gayden, who wrote the first movie, was accompanied by Chris Morgan, who wrote six Fast & Furious movies, to develop the script for the sequel (we have already seen some “Fast & Furious” family references in the first trailer). David F. Sandberg is back in a director’s chair, and the movie is just around the corner.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to be released worldwide on March 17, 2023.

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