Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to strike theaters in just two weeks, with the Zachary Levi-led superhero flick leading the final stretch of DC Extended Universe films before we enter the James Gunn era. Indeed, considering it’s part of a franchise that’s on its way out, Fury of the Gods just might need a miracle when it comes to crunch time at the box office, which is a can of worms that Twitter has already opened quite thoroughly.
In fairness, the term “franchise” has been a always been a rather generous one to apply to the DCU; putting aside whether or not the entries held their own as good movies, the interconnectivity between them all was awfully shoddy, and in a world obsessed with cinematic universes and waiting to see what’s next, that’s certainly not a concession worth making.
Call it bad timing, but this is perhaps best epitomized by the complete lack of a relationship between Fury of the Gods and the most recent release, Black Adam. Historically, the eponymous metahumans have been the source of one of DC’s most prominent conflicts, marked by their unique shared superpowers.
According to director David F. Sandberg in an interview with SlashFilm, the sheer independence of Black Adam was very much acknowledged, and in turn had no bearing on the development of Fury of the Gods.
“Yeah, he doesn’t own the trademark on a black suit. No, it didn’t change anything because we knew they were going to be separate, that Black Adam was sort of doing their own thing.”
It’s hard to say what the future holds for these two as far as the rebrand is concerned. On the one hand, it would probably be unwise to totally exclude two important DC figures from your canon, but on the other, the fan interest needs to show itself to add fuel to that fire, and we’ll just have to see if Fury of the Gods can pull an audience big enough to supply that.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods will release to theaters on March 17.
