Zachary Levi went ahead and addressed the negativity from the DC fandom surrounding Shazam! Fury of the Gods in an eye-opening Instagram Live video this week, in which he made a couple of major revelations about some failed attempts at franchise synergy behind the scenes of these movies. Not only was Henry Cavill’s Superman cameo in the first Shazam! shot down, but the original vision for the sequel’s mid-credits scene was very different from what we ended up with on-screen.
As is common knowledge by now, the released credits sequence sees Peacemaker‘s Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Economos (Steve Agee) attempt to recruit Shazam into the Justice Society. Levi revealed, however, that the original plan was for a much splashier crossover to occur, with Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman and Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone reprising their roles from Black Adam to visit Billy Batson themselves. However, in Levi’s words, such a plan was “thwarted.”
The star doesn’t exactly spell it out, but fans have certainly assumed that it was Dwayne Johnson and his team who vetoed such a crossover. It certainly wasn’t DC management, as Levi stresses that “[former DC Films president] Walter Hamada, [producer] Peter Safran, [director] David Sandberg, myself, everybody…” was fully on board with making this epic scene happen but it was ultimately not to be. Well, not this time at least, but it’s possible things could be different in the future.
It might be extremely telling that Levi mentions Safran was one of those keen to make these JSA cameos occur, as it just so happens that Safran is the DCU’s new co-CEO alongside James Gunn. As we know The Rock has parted ways with DC, with there being no chance of a Black Adam 2, but with Johnson not around to prevent his “Black Adam-verse” characters being used elsewhere, it seems completely possible that the Justice Society could reappear, especially with Safran apparently being a big proponent of them.
Seeing as many fans considered the JSA the best part about Black Adam, there would surely be a lot of support from the faithful to see Carter Hall and his crew return to the fold. In fact, given that Shazam! 2‘s poor box office seemingly nixes the chances of a threequel, having the Justice Society come back could be Levi’s only chance at his own DC return, given that he’s supposedly part of the team now.
Ironically for Dwayne Johnson, it may be the DCU’s new hierarchy of power that ends up giving the Justice Society its due, not him.
