Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg is planning to take a long break from superhero movies following poor critical reception for the Shazam sequel.
On Twitter, Sandberg posted a thread of thoughts following Shazam 2’s opening weekend, sharing that he plans to return to his horror roots.
“On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film,” Sandberg wrote. “I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well. As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of Shazam I’m definitely done with superheroes for now.”
On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film ?♂️ I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well.
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) March 20, 2023
Sandberg’s right about the disparity between Shazam 2’s Rotten Tomatoes critic score and audience score. The critic average currently sits at 52%, while over 1,000 fan ratings have the movie’s audience score at 88%.
Prior to directing the pair of DC films, Sandberg directed 2016’s Lights Out and 2017’s Annabelle: Creation, which were both supernatural horror films. While the director wants to go back to horror, Sandberg was quick to point out that he is grateful for his time working on Shazam.
“Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the Shazam movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences. One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not having to think about that anymore.”
Sandberg’s not the only filmmaker to speak out about negative review scores recently. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania screenwriter Jeff Loveness said he was “really sad about” the Ant-Man threequel’s poor critical reception, telling The Daily Beast, “To be honest, those reviews took me by surprise… I was in a pretty low spot… Those were not good reviews, and I was like, ‘What the …?’”
IGN gave Shazam! Fury of the Gods a “Good” rating in our review, calling the sequel “a breezy, often funny second outing for Billy Batson and his family of young heroes.”
For more, check out Sandberg’s previous comments about the possibility of more Shazam sequels, or read our Shazam 2 ending explained.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
