Shazam! Fury of the Gods Director Reveals How That Epic Justice League Cameo Almost Fell Apart

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters, and it sees the return of Zachary Levi in the titular role as well as the entire Shazamily. The end of the first movie included a funny moment where Superman comes to visit Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) at school for lunch. However, the movie did not use Henry Cavill and only showed the iconic hero from the neck down. While some fans found this choice to be amusing, others were disappointed that Cavill didn't appear in the film. Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Now, the sequel actually does feature a Justice League cameo: Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. At the end of the film, Billy sacrifices himself, but Wonder Woman shows up and is able to use her powers to bring him back to life. Recently, director David F. Sandberg revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Gadot's cameo almost fell apart. 

"Right from the start and from the first script," Sandberg replied when asked how early they had planned to include Gadot. "She was always supposed to be in it, but I didn't believe it was going to happen because of what happened on the first movie where we had to do a headless Superman cameo. I thought that was going to happen here, too. So I started to think, 'Okay, when she can't do it or when it falls apart, how do we bring Shazam back to life? Will we have to bring Helen Mirren's character, Hespera, back? What are we going to do?' But then it actually did happen, which was great, because then we could poke fun at the headless cameo of the first movie, with the Wizard [Djimon Hounsou] dream sequence and things like that. But we never could have done that if we didn't actually have Gal at the end because people would've been furious."

Sandberg added, "Because of a bunch of situations, I had to direct her stuff, remotely. So I was at home, and I had one screen with a feed from the camera and one feed that was a Zoom window where I could talk to her and everyone on set. It was kind of weird, but it worked out really well. She was super nice and super professional, and it was a dream to work with her."

Has David F. Sandberg Reacted To Shazam! Fury of the Gods' Disappointing Box Office Turnout? 

Unfortunately, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is not doing too well at the box office. The DC sequel is now estimated to open 44% lower than the original, earning $30 million over its first three days. That's following an opening day total of $11.7 million (compared to the first Shazam!'s $20.3 million). In the r/boxoffice subreddit, a post was shared about the movie only making $30 million, which caused a reaction from Sandberg.

 One user commented, "David F Sanberg deserves better. I wanna see him return to horror," and another tagged the director's account in the post, adding, "/u/dauid, we are rooting for you!" Another user chimed in with, "Damn feels so low to tag the guy in a post about his movie underperforming. I get that it's a positive comment but still tho haha" This caused Sandberg to reply, "No worries. I saw where this was heading a long time ago. I'll be alright though. I got paid all my money upfront."

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters.