A cameo by a certain member of the Justice League in Shazam! Wrath of the Gods was planned from the very beginning, although the director was not sure if it would happen.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director David F. Sandberg was asked when the surprise Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) appearance of the film was written into the story. “Right from the beginning and from the first script,” Sandberg said. “She was always supposed to be in it, but I didn’t think it was going to happen because of what happened in the first movie where we had to do a headless Superman cameo. I thought that was going to happen here as well.” Sandberg’s “headless Superman” remark refers to the end of the first Shazam! in 2019, when Superman is briefly shown from the neck down. This was because actor Henry Cavill was unavailable for filming at the time.
Shazam! Creative With the DC Universe
Sandberg went on to say that, if Gadot wasn’t available, he might have brought back Hespera (Helen Mirren) to restore the Wizard’s staff after it is destroyed during the film’s climax. “So I started thinking, ‘Okay, when she can’t do it or when it falls apart, how are we going to bring Shazam back to life?’ Will we have to bring back Helen Mirren’s character, Hesperan? What are we going to do do?’ But then it actually happened, which was great, because then we could make fun of the headless cameo from the first movie, with the Wizard dream sequence and stuff like that. But we could never have done that if we didn’t actually have Gal at the end because people would be furious .”
Wonder Woman wasn’t the only DC cameo originally planned for the film. While Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) himself never appears to fight against his arch nemesis, the Justice Society of Black Adam very nearly appeared during the post-credits scene of the film. According to Sandberg’s earlier comments, the Justice Society was supposed to personally speak to Shazam (Zachary Levi) at the end, but Sandberg learned that the actors could not appear until three days before the scene was to be filmed. A few last minute phone calls to producers were made, and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee) from The Suicide Squad and peacemaker were written into the scene instead.
Shazam! Wrath of the Gods continues the adventures of teenager Billy Batson and his mercenary brothers, who all acquired powers of mythological gods thanks to the ancient Wizard (Djimon Honsou) in the first film. The sequel pits Shazam against the Daughters of Atlas, who hope to steal the Wizard’s power for themselves and take revenge for their father’s death. As Shazam’s friends lose their powers, he must stop Daughter Kalypso (Lucy Liu) from conquering Earth with an army of monsters.
Shazam! Wrath of the Gods now playing in theaters.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter