Shazam! Fury of the Gods was in the can long before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the DCU, though it’s still the first release under new management. Admittedly, this doesn’t mean a huge amount; the tone of the movie, the script, and the marketing strategy will have been decided by the previous Warner Bros. Discovery regime, but all eyes will be on the second installment’s box office performance regardless.
The Shazam! sequel arrives in theaters in mid-March, and posters have been popping up all over multiplexes. Now, courtesy of @TaurooAldebaran on Twitter, we have some new ones. One looks almost Coca-Cola-themed, and the other seems to resemble a wrestling promo.
In an intriguing twist, these two images do seem to be Warner Bros. art but haven’t been officially released, so we don’t know whether they’ll actually be used to promote the movie.
As for the future of Zachary Levi’s charismatic hero? Well, with Gunn and Safran clearing away the remains of the SnyderVerse it’s tempting to think Shazam will be swept along with the tide, but the fact that his corner of the DCU can function separately from the rest may throw these teenage heroes a lifeline.
We suspect that the future of Shazam! rests on Fury of the Gods’ run at the box office. March has traditionally been a strong month for the superhero genre in theaters, so fingers crossed Gunn doesn’t decree that Billy Batson’s story ends here.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods hits theaters on Mar. 17.