Although it may be hard to imagineShazam! Fury of the Godswithout Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren, it seems that early drafts were focused on a different set of villains: Mark Strong’s Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind.
Shazam 2stars Lucy Liu and Dame Helen Mirren as two of the trio known as The Daughters of Atlas. The third sister is played by Rachel Zegler, who musical fans may have seen inSteven Spielberg’sWest Side Story. The three sisters spend the movie attempting to get the seed of The Tree of Life to revive their home realm. While their quest isn’t initially catastrophic for Earth, Liu’s character turns greedy and vengeful, and Billy and his family have to stop the Daughters of Atlas from destroying Earth.
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While having a group of sisters as the bad guysplay intoShazam 2’s familial themes, it wasn’t the writers' first plan. Co-writers Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan had planned to bring back Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind as the main antagonists ofShazam! Fury of the Gods. “There’s a scene where Sivana breaks out of prison without having to lift a finger because of Mister Mind’s help, which is one of my favorite scenes I’ve written,” Gayden said toThe Hollywood Reporter. “There was stuff there that was great, but none of it really serviced a natural growth for Billy. It felt a little redundant. It felt like we were doing the last movie just on a bigger scale.” Instead, Sivana and Mister Mind were given their second end-credits scene, which plays off the first one that appeared afterShazam!
Sivana and Mister Mind’s post-credits scene wasn’t the only one attached to the movie. In a mid-credits scene, Billy is approached by Emilia Harcourt and John Economos, whoDC fans might recognize from HBO Max’sPeacemaker. Harcourt and Economos offer Billy a place in the Justice Society, which he eagerly agrees to until he finds out that the Justice Society is different from the Justice League. Both scenes indicate that this won’t be the last audiences see of Billy, his family, or his villains, but since the recent change in direction at DC, Shazam’s future is in question.
Regarding a third movie, Gayden expressed interest in bringing back Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind, but not as the main villains. Instead, he thought bringing the duo back for another post-credits scene would be a fun way to keep the two characters involved in the franchise while allowing him to explore different villains.
Due toShazam! Fury of the Gods' disappointing performanceduring its opening weekend and the franchise’s absence from any official DCU announcements for future projects, it’s possible this will be the last time audiences see Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind. There may be hope for Levi’s Shazam, as he could easily turn up in other projects. Still, he could just as easily join the club of discarded DC characters who’ve had their stories cut short by the DCU’s grand plans.
Shazam! Fury of the Godsis playing in theaters now.
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