Shazam! Fury of the Gods has finally hit theaters, but the question always remains with new superhero movies – are there any post-credits scenes? We’ll make it simple: Shazam! Fury of the Gods has both a mid-credits and a post-credits scene.
Warning: The rest of this article is full of spoilers about the ending of the Shazam! sequel!
Shazam! Fury of the Gods kicks off a busy year for DC on the big screen. But given the rapidly shifting state of DC’s film and TV lineup, you might be wondering what the ending means for Shazam’s future movie prospects. Does Fury of the Gods set up more sequels? Is the franchise DOA now that James Gunn and Peter Safran are building a new DCU?
Let’s break down the dramatic ending of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, that big DCEU cameo, the post-credits scenes and what all of this means for a potential Shazam! 3. There may just be hope for this franchise yet.
Shazam! Ending Explained: The Death and Resurrection of Billy Batson
Shazam! Fury of the Gods culminates in a showdown between our hero and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso, who has stolen and corrupted the Wizard’s staff, which is capable throughout the movie of sapping the powers of gods and storing them like a battery. Kalypso hopes to destroy the world and recreate the realm of the gods in revenge for the death of her father, Atlas. Billy recovers the staff and, armed with the power of family, makes the only play available to him. He uses the staff to vaporize Kalypso and her dragon, but loses his powers and dies in the process.
With Hespera and Kalypso dead, and Anthea de-powered by Kalypso in the final fight, there’s seemingly no god able to reverse Billy’s sacrifice, so his family can do nothing but mourn him. Billy may not have been born a god, but as the redeemed Hespera’s final words suggest, he deserves to be buried as one, so Anthea takes his body back to her kingdom. It’s all very reminiscent of Superman’s heroic sacrifice in Batman v Superman, except we don’t have to wait for another movie to see Billy resurrected.
That’s where the much-hyped Wonder Woman cameo comes in. Gal Gadot’s Diana attends Billy’s funeral and is able to use her own godly powers to repair the staff and bring Billy back to life. That not only serves to give Fury of the Gods a happy ending, but it also forges a link between Shazam and Wonder Woman that could be worth exploring in future sequels. If there are sequels, anyway. Given that there’s not going to be a Wonder Woman 3 with Gadot, it is a little strange to see her given such a prominent cameo.
Fury of the Gods: Are There End-Credits Scenes?
Like so many superhero movies, Shazam! Fury of the Gods features both a mid-credits and post-credits scene, both of which lay the foundation for upcoming DC movies.
The mid-credits scene brings back two familiar faces from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker – Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee’s John Economos. These two ARGUS agents have been sent by Amanda Waller to recruit Billy for a super-team, though they’re shocked to find an 18-year-old kid instead of the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Billy is so eager to sign up he doesn’t even wait for them to finish their offer. Only afterward does he realize he’s signed on to the Justice Society, not the Justice League.
This scene serves as another major link between Shazam and Black Adam, and it suggests that Billy will be a member of the team when and if we see Black Adam’s Justice Society lineup in another movie.
The post-credits scene serves as a follow-up to the one from the original Shazam. Once again, Mark Strong’s Doctor Sivana is approached by the psychic caterpillar Mister Mind. Sivana has clearly been imprisoned for a while now, but Mister Mind tells his new partner that he’s still putting his plans into motion… which takes an awfully long time when you have to crawl everywhere. If we do ever see a Shazam! 3, these two characters will probably be the villains.
Director David F. Sandberg hinted as much during a recent press roundtable. He revealed that one version of the Shazam! 2 script featured Sivana in a major role, culminating in his death.
“When we were sort of exploring ways to go with him and Sivana was in it, there was actually a moment where Sivana died. Like, you can’t do that. He’s like the Lex Luthor. You can’t kill him in the second movie. We want to get more out of him.”
But will we get a Shazam! 3? Let’s break down what we know.
Will Zachary Levi’s Shazam Stay in James Gunn’s DCU?
The outlook for more Shazam! movies hasn’t exactly been good in recent months. Most of the big players from the DCEU are out. Henry Cavill’s tenure as Superman is over, despite the tease in Black Adam’s post-credits scene. Dwayne Johnson is also out as Black Adam. DC isn’t developing a third Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins, and The Flash looks to be Ben Affleck’s final time in the cape and cowl.
The Flash marks a major transition point for the DC movie line, and it seems safe to assume that Barry Allen’s time-traveling adventures will be the catalyst for a soft reboot of the current DC continuity. With Shazam! Fury of the Gods releasing before The Flash, it may be one more franchise wiped away by the shift to James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios roadmap.
That all being said, it’s not as though every character and property is being rebooted for the new DCU. Gunn is still developing an Amanda Waller series that spins out of the events of Peacemaker: Season 1, and Peacemaker: Season 2 is also still in the works. At the very least, Waller, her minions at ARGUS and the surviving Suicide Squad members all seem to be making the jump to this new universe.
That makes the mid-credits scene in Fury of the Gods all the more intriguing. Billy Batson meets Agents Harcourt and Economos. If they’re sticking around after the reboot, does that mean Shazam is as well? Is anyone who’s had direct interaction with the cast of Peacemaker considered safe? Why even include this scene if Gunn and company didn’t want to create the impression that there’s still a future planned for Levi’s Shazam? Gunn is married to Holland, so he literally went to the trouble of sending his wife to meet Shazam in the end credits.
Gunn is married to Holland, so he literally went to the trouble of sending his wife to meet Shazam in the end credits.
During a press roundtable, Sandberg revealed that this scene wasn’t originally meant to feature the two Peacemaker characters, but plans changed at the last minute.
“That happened before [Gunn] became a boss. It was actually supposed to be different characters, but then it had to change last minute after we had already built the set and we had no time. Still wanted to do the scene, so Peter Safran, who produced Peacemaker, he made some calls and thankfully [Holland and Agee] were able to come down and do that scene for us.”
On the other hand, what about the fact that the movie also links Shazam to Gadot’s Wonder Woman, a character who seemingly isn’t sticking around after The Flash? The DC cameos in Fury of the Gods give very contradictory messages.
There’s also the confusion created by connecting Billy to the Justice Society. DC clearly has no intention of moving forward with a Black Adam sequel at this time, yet the mid-credits scene suggests they do still plan to keep the Justice Society in play. Where exactly is the line being drawn in terms of which characters to keep around versus which ones to reboot?
At the very least, this seems to be a case of DC leaving a door open for more Shazam! sequels without necessarily committing to a Shazam! 3 just yet. Sandberg has suggested that no firm decisions have been made just yet. According to him, it all comes down to money. If Fury of the Gods is a box office hit like its predecessor, then DC will be more inclined to keep the current franchise running.
“What I’ve been told is that this movie doesn’t contradict anything they’re doing with their future plans,” Sandberg told IGN, noting that the movie is enough of a standalone project that it theoretically could carry over to the new universe. “Seems not to. Seems to be able to work.”
At the moment, there’s no clear indication that Shazam is even part of Gunn and Safran’s DCU roadmap, so the sequel question may be a moot one. That said, Gunn has confirmed that fans have only seen some of the projects planned for this first act. The name “Gods and Monsters” certainly hints that a character like Shazam with divine superhuman origins could have a major part to play. Hopefully, we’ll know more after the box office returns are in and The Flash hits theaters this summer.
Until then, find out how to watch Shazam! Fury of the Gods and when you can expect the sequel to come to streaming. You can also check out IGN’s full review of Fury of the Gods, dig in on the DCEU movie end-credits teases that were never paid off, and learn why Shazam doesn’t need Black Adam right here:
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
