Despite rumors circulating on the internet, Shazam 2 has not officially been announced by Warner Bros. The DC comic book Captain Marvel aka Shazam, about a teenage boy who acquires the power to transform into an adult superhero, first made its way to the small screen in 1974 as a live-action TV series. In 2019, Shazam! arrived in the DCEU with Zachary Levi as the grown-up superhero form of kid Billy Batson, and went on to perform well at the box office with $364 million in worldwide grosses.
In many ways a departure from earlier heavy and epic DCEU movies like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Man of Steel, Shazam! put a comedic spin on the title character, and the more light-hearted approach was obviously successful with audiences given the film’s healthy box office tally. Considering that box office performance, it seems inevitable that Shazam! will get a sequel, and indeed it was recently reported that Warner Bros. was going ahead with Shazam 2. According to various sources, WB made the official announcement about the Shazam! sequel during the same CCXP panel where the studio unveiled their new Wonder Woman 1984 trailer.
However, it’s now been revealed by reliable sources that in fact the Shazam 2 announcement was never made. Collider reporter Steven Weintraub took to Twitter to assure everyone that he was present at the CCXP panel in Brazil and heard nothing about Warner Bros. officially going ahead with the sequel. See his tweet in the space below:
As Weintraub points out, WB is going ahead with a movie about Black Adam, a character who is referenced in Shazam! but does not appear, with Dwayne Johnson in the title role. It seems likely that when Shazam 2 does happen, it will come after Black Adam (though at least according to Levi, his character and Black Adam would not actually meet until Shazam 3). At any rate, there is high confidence of a Shazam! sequel happening but as of now it has not officially been added to the DC slate, which of course is already filled with titles like The Batman, Birds of Prey, the aforementioned Wonder Woman sequel and Aquaman 2.
As to how the false story about Shazam 2’s confirmation got started in the first place, it appears the rumor was cranked up on Twitter and then picked up by various websites. However, as Weintraub notes in his tweet, none of the major outlets that normally convey breaking movie news picked up the story, which should have cast doubt on its veracity. This appears to be a case of a few sites choosing to go ahead with a bad piece of Twitter information rather than waiting for official confirmation (which certainly would have arrived via Warner Bros. themselves very soon after their CCXP panel).
Shazam! fans may be disappointed to learn that the sequel is not yet officially in the works, but of course it’s surely only a matter of time before Shazam 2 is indeed added to the upcoming DC slate. Shazam may not be one of the biggest DC characters, but the first movie’s tone definitely delighted audiences, and Levi’s take on the character was one of the more enjoyable superhero performances in recent years, so another Shazam! movie would be very welcome (especially if he faces off against Black Adam).
Source: Steven Weintraub/Twitter
