Zachary Levi as Shazam, Meagan Good and Ross Butler.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
(This story contains spoilers about Shazam! Wrath of the Gods.)
If the last scene from the outcome Shazam! Wrath of the Gods looked familiar, it should have.
After a long battle against the Daughters of Atlas – Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) – the DC sequel ends with Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and Shazam! family safely back together, rebuilding their home after it was destroyed in the final battle. They’re all restored to their powers, and Billy finally learns his true superhero name—which is, of course, Shazam. And when Levi’s possibly final outing as a superhero comes, there are two end-credits sequences.
The final credits scene is reminiscent of the first film’s post-credits promises, with Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) plotting revenge in his prison with an unlikely guest—Mr. Mind, a supervillain worm with a robotic voice. major Shazam! enemy from comics.
This time, the scene once again opens with Mister Mind and Sivana meeting. Two years have passed since the events of the first film, and Sivana has been patiently waiting for the worm genius to help her break out of her cell so she can get revenge on Billy.
“Where the hell have you been?” Sivana exclaims. “I’m stuck in a concrete box, surrounded by crazy people, waiting for the worm.” Mr. Mind then explains that despite his genius and telepathic powers, it takes time to slip. He has no legs or wings, which makes traveling understandably difficult.
Although the sequel was originally intended to focus on Mister Mind as the villain, screenwriters Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan ultimately decided to go a different route by introducing the daughters of Atlas. In a recent interview The Hollywood ReporterGayden revealed that Wrath of the GodsThe end text scene started out as a fun writing exercise.
“I really wrote it for a lark,” the author said. “Nobody asked me to write it. We had done all these drafts of Mister Mind and Sivana and ended up scrapping them. And so randomly I thought, ‘It’s so sad to lose them,'” Gayden recalled. “So just for fun, as a joke, I wrote it. Then months go by and we start pre-production and I thought, should we shoot this as a post-release thing?
Gayden recalls that former DC Films boss Walter Hamada “had forgotten about it, but said, ‘This is the best thing you’ve ever written.’
It turns out that there were even earlier drafts of the sequel script where Mister Mind and Sivana teamed up.
“There’s a scene where Sivana breaks out of prison without having to lift a finger thanks to the help of Mr. Mind, which is one of my favorite scenes I’ve written,” the writer said. “There was some great stuff, but none of it really served Billy’s natural growth. It felt a bit pointless. It felt like we were making the last movie only on a bigger scale.
Instead, he and Morgan wanted to focus on the question of family and what that would mean for Billy, who never had one.
“The natural next chapter would be that he’s holding on too tightly because he’s afraid of losing the family,” Gayden said.
Instead, it made more sense to introduce the daughters of Atlas to villains who were themselves family.
Shazam! Rage of the gods comes at a time of DC change. James Gunn and Shazam! producer Peter Safran was tapped last year to lead the studio’s film, TV and animation operations Shazam! – like Henry Cavill’s Superman – was left off their future list. The future of the franchise is up in the air, even if soft box office numbers are coming Wrath of the Gods hinders the likelihood of a sequel.
Still, if the writers were to continue the series, Gayden would possibly like to see Dr. Sivana and Mister Mind finally get their moment in the sun. “If we have Shazam! 3it will be fun if we get them back,” Gayden said.
The writer added: “But also if we had Shazam! 3 and we go our separate ways with the villains, I’ve always wanted the credits to continue to be Sivana and Mister Mind. I just thought it was the taste Shazam!, the fact that it’s kind of understated pokes fun at the movies’ tropes. If the post-credits scene always makes fun of the post-credits scenes, I think it could be really funny.”