Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to revamp the so-called Shazamily’s superhero suits, with a promo image released at the start of production on the DCEU sequel revealing Zachary Levi’s aged-up strong-man and his adoptive siblings in swanky new outfits. As cool as the costumes are, though, this does create a bit of an issue. The Shazamily’s suits manifest whenever they say the word “Shazam!”, they don’t decide what they wear, so why would they have changed between movies?
Director David F. Sandberg has a perfect, and hilarious, explanation for this apparent plot-hole, however. Recently, DC changed up their release schedule for the next year, with The Flash moving into 2023 while Shazam 2 now lands this December. Sandberg admitted on Twitter that this slightly messes with his head-canon that his film takes place after the Scarlet Speedster rewrites reality. That said, he thinks the wardrobe change still makes sense thanks to one handy-dandy get-out clause: magic.
“Shazam 2 never addresses why their suits are different now,” Sandberg explained. “If anyone would ask my plan was to say it’s because Barry messed with the timeline but now we come out before Flash so I’ll say the wizard did it. Pro filmmaking tip: Put a wizard in your movie to be CinemaSins proof.”
Star Rachel Zegler, who’s making her DC debut in the film, supported Sandberg’s logic in a brief response to the director’s tweet, simply writing “solid.”
The “a wizard did it” non-excuse to continuity errors famously originates from The Simpsons, but Sandberg’s actually totally fair in using it in regards to Shazam 2. The mystical and not entirely defined nature of the hero family’s powers means it’s fair enough to say that their change in costumes has a magical reason. Unfortunately, the magic excuse won’t cut it when it comes to the other DCEU movie impacted by The Flash‘s delay, however. Fans are wondering how Batgirl is going to explain Michael Keaton being back as Batman now it’s coming out before his official grand return.
Thanks to its bump up the schedule, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to blast onto screens this December 16.