In Hollywood, superhero sequels tend to be purposefully bigger than the original. The stakes, scope, and budget are all raised in the sequel. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the latest superhero film to follow this formula. Fury of the Gods has a bigger budget than Shazam! and will introduce multiple new characters, including the daughters of Atlas. Director David F. Sandberg explained to Total Film Magazine why he saw Shazam! 2 as a “mini-Avengers movie.”
“That’s how I saw it because there are so many characters,” Sandberg said.” You have all these heroes, you have the villains, you have the monsters… It’s a lot of movie packed into its runtime. And it’s complicated. Just shooting and staging up to 11 characters in a scene… Where do you put everyone?”
“On the first one we had a lower budget and it was a smaller movie,” Sandberg continued. “On this one, we got more resources so we could actually compete with the other superhero movies.”
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Despite the increased size of the sequel, the heart from Shazam! remains the most important part of the franchise. Billy Batson’s fight to keep his family intact will be a major plot point in the Shazam! 2.
“The story is very much about Billy being afraid of losing this family,” Sandberg said. “He found a family in the first movie, and now they’re getting old enough to have to move out of a group home and start getting jobs. So he’s terrified. They have to balance their regular lives of going to school and having jobs with being superheroes. It’s tough for them.”
Shazam! Fury of the Gods premieres in theaters on March 17.
Will Shazam! 2 be the final film in the franchise? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Shazam: The World’s Mightiest Vol. 1
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