Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: dc, film, shazam, shazam: fury of the gods, Warner Bros

Shazam! Fury of the Gods Director Explains Villain Switch Up

Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg explains the choice to exclude Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana for the Daughters of Atlas.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is just around the corner, marking the official return to the timeline of the 2019 DC superhero flick Shazam! that's set to include an entire roster of returning characters from the first entry. And with the current DC overhaul underway, the future beyond the second chapter of Shazam! is very uncertain, so fans have to face the fact that there's a chance this could be the end… regardless of a few concepts that could remain unexplored.

While the end of the first film may have teased a possible sequel setup with two comic book villains, Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana, we've known for quite some time now that Shazam! Fury of the Gods would pivot and enlist the Daughters of Atlas as new franchise foes. So why the sudden change of heart? A recent interview between director David F. Sandberg and io9 intends to offer perfect clarity on the choice.

Exploring Shazam! Fury of the Gods Options with Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana

When directly asked about the alteration, Sandberg tells the publication, "First of all, we looked at the comic books, what they were doing, but that didn't feel like a good fit for what this movie needed to be. Then, of course, since we did set up Mister Mind at the end of the first one, we did start looking at treatments and things where it did involve Mister Mind and Sivana. [At one point] it was actually Mister Mind who enabled the sisters to come here because it was part of a bigger plan of his. But it was just too much story to tell for this movie. So we had to lose Mister Mind and Sivana for this time. So they were in there originally, but not as the main villain."

When explaining the choice to pursue following the Daughters of Atlas as the sequel villains, the director then explains, "There was a lot of back and forth on what to do because we wanted to have something in the real world but bring something cool here. And then the idea was that [Shazam's] powers are from Greek gods and mythology and all of that. So it's like, 'Ooh if the powers were stolen and then given to him, that gives a motivation that you can understand with the sisters.' I mean, they do have a point here. They go about it in a bad way, but they do have a point."

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will arrive in theaters on March 17, 2023.

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