At this point, it’s safe to call David F. Sandberg‘s “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” a flop. It’s not a huge flop, but the movie’s opening weekend box-office numbers were, in a word, dismal. And it’s a mixed critical reception for the sequel to Sandberg’s 2019 film: a consensus shoulder shrug to its existence. Obviously, that’s not what Sanberg and star Zachary Levi wanted out of “Fury Of The Gods,” but it leaves the movie’s makers to wonder what they could have done differently.
The Direct reports that, according to Levy’s recent Instagram Live story, there was a lot he, Sandberg, and others indeed wanted to do differently in the film’s post-credits scenes but were “thwarted” by another party. It’s not hard to surmise who that “other party” is: Dwayne Johnson, who plays Black Adam in the poorly received DCEU film from last October. Levi claims, without mentioning Johnson by name, that the original plan for one of the mid-credits scenes was for Shazam to bump into members of the JSA. But Johnson apparently nixed that idea, wanting his movie and character to have as little to do with Levi’s as possible.
“People are slagging on James Gunn because Jennifer Holland, his wife, who is an actress, who’s on “Peacemaker” and was in “[The] Suicide Squad,” which is connected to the Justice Society,” Levi started in his Instagram Live story. “We used Jennifer and Steve in that scene, in that mid-credits scene, in “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.” But that was not the original intent. The original intent was to have Hawkman and Cyclone be there to invite me… By the way, this is a little bit of a spoiler alert for anybody who hasn’t scene the movie, sorry! Whatever, it’s all online anyway.” In other words, the original plan was for Aldis Hodge‘s Hawkman and Quintessa Swindell‘s Cyclone to invite Billy Batson/Shazam to join the JSA. But Johnson didn’t want the scene to happen.
“So our intent, our desire, Walter Hamada, Peter Safran, David Sandberg, myself, everybody… We had an awesome scene that would have tied me in to the JSA with Hawkman and with Cyclone, and we were thwarted,” Levi continued. “This is not me; I’m not talking about these things trying to blame anybody for our movie doing, however well or not well it’s doing. I am merely coming to the defense of the people that ought to be defended. I am coming to the defense of truth because the truth is good, and we should all live in it, guys.”
Even without naming names, it’s pretty clear who Levi indirectly blames for the changed credits scene. And it confirms the story from earlier this week about Johnson pushing for his film having zero involvement with Sandberg’s. That story claims that Johnson “knee-capped” Levi having a cameo in a post-credits scene in “Black Adam,” pushing for a cameo from Henry Cavill‘s Superman instead. And that was just the first of many behind-the-scenes moves by Johnson to derail any synergy between the two DCEU franchises. Despite all of that, “Black Adam” wasn’t the hit Johnson expected, and now he’s on the outside looking in regarding James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plans for the new DCEU.
As for Levi, this isn’t the first time he’s talked about ideas for the “Shazam!” movies being “thwarted.” BamSwackPow! reports that after the release of “Shazam!,” the actor took to Instagram Live to explain how the movie’s creative team wanted Cavill to cameo at the end of the film, but it ultimately didn’t happen. “We tried desperately to get Henry Cavill in the first movie,” Levi said in an IG Live story. “He wasn’t a headless Superman because we wanted him to be a headless Superman. We were thwarted. All of these hard-working people were thwarted. We were not allowed to have that happen, ok? That was not on us. That was not because we didn’t want that to happen for you.” So apparently, even the first “Shazam!” film fell victim to some behind-the-scenes meddling, too.
It’s understandable for Levi to be upset over his new movie’s abysmal opening. The actor even went so far as to blame the film’s failure on its poor marketing in a now-deleted tweet. But, Johnson’s ego-tripping aside, it’s in poor taste for the lead of one DC film franchise to challenge and chastise another lead of a DC film franchise over social media, especially when the future of DC Studios is already in such upheaval. At this point, it’s obvious that Levi, Sandberg, and the “Shazam!” franchise won’t be part of the new DCEU’s future like Johnson and “Black Adam” aren’t. Johnson’s disappointed about that as much as Levi is, but creative bullying aside, he may be handling it a little better than Levi right now. So as difficult as it may be, maybe it’s time for Levi to stop playing the blame game and simply move on to the next phase of his career.