Shazam! Director Addresses Fan Expectations

Screen Rant

How the Shazam! Director Is Dealing With Fan Expectations

Shazam! director David F. Sandberg discusses the challenge of managing fan expectations for his upcoming DC Extended Universe movie.

Shazam! director David F. Sandberg recently discussed what it's like dealing with fan expectations. The upcoming comic book movie that follows the young boy Billy Batson, who possesses the ability to transform into the adult superhero Shazam (formerly named Captain Marvel), is Warner Bros.' next movie that will shoot as part of their burgeoning DC Extended Universe. The next DCEU movie on the docket remains James Wan's Aquaman, releasing in December 2018 and starring Jason Momoa as the eponymous character, and Shazam! will follow suit in April 2019.

Although production had been somewhat slow-going at first, the film hasn't budged from its long-held release date, which the studio first announced way back in 2014. It wasn't until last month that Light's Out and Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg was confirmed to be directing the movie. Since the upcoming DCEU movie will be the shared universe's most lighthearted installment yet, Sandberg will be drawing experience from his time working in animation more so than he will from his time working on horror films. Still, that doesn't mean he will get everything right, at least not in the eyes of all fans.

In an interview with Film Riot promoting his latest film, Annabelle: Creation, the Swedish director briefly discussed Shazam!, namely how he's dealing with managing fan expectations. After all, he cannot satisfy everyone who has and hasn't read the source material.

"It's going to be interesting, just because of how hardcore the fans are. Like already, if I tweet a little something, suddenly there's blog posts and arguments, and no matter what you do, some people are just going to be disappointed. I get so many tweets about, 'You should do this!' And then someone else is like 'No, you should do this!', which is the complete opposite of that. And it's like, 'Well, okay, one of you guys is going to be disappointed.'"

Going from directing low-to-mid-budget horror movies to big-scale comic book movies certainly comes with its fair share of challenges, part of which is dealing with passionate fans. No matter what happens, someone will be disappointed; that's the way the filmmaking industry works, especially when it comes to making comic book movies. However, it's not something that's exclusive to superhero movies; it can affect anyone attempting to continue or remake past movies and franchises. For instance, Jon Favreau recently discussed managing fan expectations with his upcoming CGI remake of The Lion King.

But, it stands to reason that comic book movie directors have it worse. Sandberg has already found himself trolling fans on social media, only to discover those same comments being misconstrued elsewhere. Unfortunately for him, that's only going to increase ten-fold when Shazam! enters production next year.