Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg has revealed that more DC characters were supposed to cameo in the movie – but it all fell apart days before cameras were set to roll. A warning that the following will contain Shazam 2 spoilers, so turn away now if you haven't seen the movie yet!
In the Shazam 2 post-credits scene, Jennifer Holland's Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee's John Economos show up to try and recruit Billy Batson to the Justice Society of America, on behalf of Amanda Waller (absent in this movie, but played by Viola Davis in the DCU). According to Sandberg, this scene was originally meant to involve the Justice Society itself.
"So there were supposed to be characters from [Black Adam's] Justice Society, but that fell apart three days before we were going to roll cameras," Sandberg told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that the set for the scene was already built.
Luckily, though, something was able to be worked out. "So, Peter Safran, who produced this movie and Peacemaker, made some calls, and thankfully, Jen Holland and Steve Agee were able to come by on very short notice," Sandberg explained. "I mean, the scene makes a little less sense with them. It's like, 'Why are they recruiting for Justice Society?' but you can kind of see it as they're working for Amanda Waller. So I was just very grateful to get them in there, and it was really cool shooting it because I'm a big fan of Peacemaker. So, sitting there and watching the monitor felt like I was watching a new episode of Peacemaker, and all of that happened a long time ago [before James Gunn and Safran became the co-CEOs of DC Studios]."
The Justice Society debuted in 2022's Black Adam, consisting of Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher, and Aldis Hodge's Hawkman. Since then, though, the DC cinematic universe has undergone a major upheaval, with Gunn and Safran taking the reins.
Sandberg also discussed the other major cameo in the movie in an interview with Inside Total Film podcast. Wonder Woman arrives towards the end of Fury of the Gods, and Sandberg told us how he considered an alternative plan in case Gal Gadot's cameo fell apart: "So I started thinking about a plan B of what other gods can we have to resurrect Shazam, can Helen [Mirren]'s character come back? That's gonna be lame. Then it actually did happen, which I was very happy about. We could poke fun at the first movie with the headless cameo and things like that."
Shazam 2 is in theaters now. For much more on the movie, check out our spoilery deep dives on:
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods ending explained
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods cameos explained
- When will Shazam! Fury of the Gods be on HBO Max?
- Are Shazam and Black Adam the same?
- How to watch the DC movies in order
- The comic history of the Shazam Family explained
- All the new DC movies and TV shows coming soon
- Our guide to DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters
- The comic history of Shazam and the Justice Society
- Do Shazam and Wonder Woman have a shared history in comics?
- The comic history of the Olympian Gods
- Shazam 2 director explains why the first movie's villain doesn't return
