Shazam! Fury of the Gods star Dame Helen Mirren reveals herself to be surprisingly down to earth during her first day on set. The film, which is a sequel to the 2019 DC Universe film Shazam!, will follow the continued adventures of the title character, played by Zachary Levi. Shazam is the alter ego of teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who has transferred his transformative powers to the rest of his foster family, including Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody), Eugene (Ian Chen and Ross Butler), Darla (Faithe Herman and Meagan Good), and Mary (Grace Fulton). Joining the cast this time around are Mirren, Lucy Liu, and West Side Story's Rachel Zegler.
Following the release of the new Shazam! Fury of the Gods trailer earlier today, Entertainment Weekly sat down with director David F. Sandberg to break down the newest revelations. When talking about the closer glimpse the trailer gives at Mirren's character Hespera, Sandberg reveals that the actor was completely different from what he originally expected. During her first day on set, she surprised him by embracing being part of the Shazam! family with some coarse language, saying that "we need more p---y power on set!" Read Sandberg's full quote below:
You kind of have an expectation, like, "Oh, it's Dame Helen entering the set!" But the first day she came on, she's like, "Yeah! We need more p---y power on set! We're here now!" and I was like, "Oh, okay!"
Everything We Know About Helen Mirren's Shazam! Fury of the Gods Character
The DCU movie Shazam 2 will be the first time Mirren has played a role in a superhero film. However, recent years have proven she isn't opposed to hopping into a major franchise, given the fact that she played the mother of Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw in The Fate of the Furious, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, F9, and the upcoming Fast X. While those films border on becoming superhero films, given the incredible strength and power of their main characters, Hespera is nevertheless an entirely new type of role for the respected actor.
In the film, Hespera, along with Zegler's Anthea and Liu's Kalypso, is a daughter of Atlas. The characters, which are derived from Greek mythology, seek to destroy Billy after he takes the powers of the gods for granted. In the original mythology, the character is one of the evening nymphs known as the Hesperides, born from the Titan who famously holds up the heavens.
Unusually, Hespera is not directly based on a character from the original DC comics. Therefore, most information fans currently have on the character is from the brief glimpses given by the various trailers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods. However, she seems to wield an ancient and formidable power that is worthy of Mirren's considerable talents, harnessing the regal poise of previous characters in her career, including her Oscar winning turn in 2006's The Queen.
Source: EW
