Image via Warner Bros.

‘Shazam! 2’ tanking hard has DC fans convinced James Gunn needs to burn the canon to the ground

Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.

David James

Published: Mar 20, 2023 08:59 am

Shazam! Fury of the Gods isn’t doing so hot. The latest DC movie has seen a terrible box-office performance, notching up the worst domestic opening Thursday of any DCEU film to date, an opening weekend of just $35 million (a massive drop from Shazam!‘s $53.5 million haul), and a similarly disappointing international performance.

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Many saw this coming, with a lackluster marketing campaign, the iffy performance of the first Shazam!, and the knowledge that James Gunn is about to begin a huge overhaul of the DCU. Even director David F. Sandberg doesn’t seem too surprised, noting that “I got paid all my money upfront” and “I saw where this was heading a long time ago.”

All this has resulted in calls for Gunn to not simply rework the DCU, but to start over from scratch with a full reboot.

Shazam Box Office making it clear that Gunn needs to do a complete reset. Just start afresh with all new actors and no hangovers from the previous universe. It is beyond saving and needs to be allowed to die. pic.twitter.com/zeJbhaDFU9
— Heavy Spoilers (@heavyspoilers) March 19, 2023

Are highlights like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn worth sacrificing?

I think it's clear that they shouldn't have said these movies were basically not going to mean anything which utterly killed it. I think it's fine to keep the actors as long as the stories will mean something and have purpose and lead somewhere. Just no more dead ends please.
— Roosevelt Gamble (@RG_historywatch) March 20, 2023

But do wider audiences know about the impending reset?

I don’t even know how widely known it is that the universe is getting reset outside of people already interested in this stuff. All the casuals I speak to have no idea superman is being recast.
— Heavy Spoilers (@heavyspoilers) March 19, 2023

Should DC just have gritted their teeth and embraced the Snyderverse?

If they didn’t cut out what the Ultimate Edition of BVS had it would have made more and so would Justice League if released in Zacks original cut. Fans are just tired of the BS.
— Kaminos (@KaminosZero) March 20, 2023

Can lessons be learned from Joker, or is it too late?

And they all flopped at the box office. The only DC films from the past 5 years that didn’t flop at the box office was joker and Batman. Both stand-alone films. I think this should be a wake up call for DC and WB on what the fans actually want
— Doog 🇵🇸 (@Doog_919) March 19, 2023

And after a full reset, can we really trust Warner Bros. not to just slam that button again if things start going wrong?

Why would I bother trusting WB to not do the same exact thing all over again? The studio doesn’t believe in what it creates yet tries to promote itself as director-friendly.
— Michael Buckelew (@MichaelBuckelew) March 19, 2023

The current DCEU still has The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to get through, with the latter releasing right at the end of the year. We suspect that’ll be the last gasp of the DCEU that began with Man of Steel — and can only agree with fans that it’s time to put this tortured shared universe out of its misery.

Roll on the Gunn era.

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Author

David James

I'm a writer/editor who's been at the site since 2015. Love writing about video games and will crawl over broken glass to write about anything related to Hideo Kojima. But am happy to write about anything and everything, so long as it's interesting!