There’s a lot of family (and Eminem!) in this Shazam! Fury Of The Gods trailer
Zachary Levi is back (and throwing trucks at dragons) in the second Shazam! film's first trailer
Film News Fury Of The Gods
We’re reasonably sure, when assembling their new San Diego Comic-Con trailer for the second Shazam! movie, Fury Of The Gods, that the film’s producers at Warner Bros. didn’t want us fixating on the extended presence of Eminem in the film’s soundtrack, the sort of prestige superhero music treatment normally reserved for Marshall Mathers’ good friend Venom. But, in our defense, it’s very distracting—as is the presence of evil doll Annabelle (from Annabelle) in one background shot. How are we supposed to be focusing on superheroes when Annabelle and Eminem could potentially be teaming up?
Anyway: The trailer as a whole looks pretty neat, with Zachary Levi’s Billy Batson/Shazam recounting all the ways he feels inadequate to the great powers that have been bestowed upon him by Djimon Hounsou’s wizard beard—apt, since the whole plot of the movie seems to be about the gods taking back those powers from Billy and his various foster siblings. (And, hey kid, don’t feel bad: There might, as you note, be another superhero in red with a lightning bolt on his chest running around this cinematic universe, but at least you don’t appear to have terrorized any major U.S. islands of late!) The result appears to be a combination of Levi’s charms—he’s still very good at doing the whole “teenager trapped in an adult’s superpowered body” thing—and bits where Shazam and the other Shazamiacs (patent pending) do things like throw trucks at some very Elden Ring-looking dragons.
Fury Of The Gods is currently flying its way toward a Christmas 2022 release date. In addition to Levi and Hounsou, the film stars Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Glazer, Adam Brody, Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren—whose combined presence in both this and the Fast And The Furious franchise must, we have to assume, have been a factor in the Fast “family” joke Levi busts out in the trailer.
10 Comments
I’m excited! By far and large by favorite DC film
I — cannot — wait!Seeing Man of Steel made me realize that DC was catering to an audience that… well… didn’t include me — Which is fine! Franchises change and I’m not owed anything — so I’ve skipped most of their movies following that one.Shazam! felt like a breath of fresh air, though.I watched it on a lazy Sunday afternoon, not expecting much, and was shocked by how good it was. I’m completely, absolutely ready for more DC adaptations along a similar… uh… vein.
What amazes me about the original Shazam movie is that despite it fun “80s kids movie” vibes it went dark when it had to. The boardroom scene is crazy violent for the movie and the whole arc with Billy’s mom is dark and sad in a way comic books never go. It helps the ending being about found family but having a mother in a movie tell a child that she chose to abandon him not because of some greater purpose or to protect him from some great evil but because she was a teen mom way in over her head is insane. Probably the most real thing ever in a superhero movie
I completely agree! I mean, even the intro filling in Sivana’s backstory gets real dark real quick. And yeah, the bit about the mom is heartbreaking, but also all too real.Fact is, some parents really do favour one child over another, or straight up resent some of their children. Mothers, despite being stereotyped as nurturing, sometimes do just walk away.The ‘chosen/found family’ theme is central to the plot, but they didn’t shy away from anchoring it onto some deeply disturbing family dynamics — for both protagonist and antagonist! — which was a downright surprising choice, particularly given the movie’s otherwise playful/comedic tone.It’s a script that swung for the fences in terms of being character-driven, and it worked extremely well — at least for me.And of course the action scenes were really fun, but they also felt like they mattered beyond obtaining some sort of MacGuffin of defeating yet another Big Bad. Can’t ask for much more!A+
That scene where Billy finds his mom is legitimately one of the most heart-breaking scenes I’ve seen.
I thought watching it that the scene with him meeting his mom was bizarrely dark, until it totally PAID OFF with the SHAZAM FAMILY!!! I really loved the movie, and also had no real expectations.
I liked the first one a lot, and I hope it’s not the case, but this trailer makes me feel like this one is leaning too far into then winking self awareness.And damn can you guys ever figure out how to embed a trailer that starts at the actual beginning and not randomly 24 seconds in?
Can’t wait. Shazam! was the sort of light and more importantly fun romp that suits a superhero film with a suitably hokey villain and goals that wasn’t weighed down by some larger “universe” shenanigans and this looks to be more of the same.
The first film is the only live-action DC film I legitimately liked from beginning to end in the past 20 or so years, so I am all in on this one.
This looks rather annoying. Which may not be a good thing.