'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' Trailer 2 (2024)

2019’s ‘Shazam!’ was a fun spin on a superhero story, which saw Zachary Levi starring as the titular hero.

Directed by David F. Sandberg (who had previously been known for horror movies such as ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Annabelle: Creation’), it was an entertaining romp that pushed laughs over drama, but still had plenty of emotional heft thanks to the main character’s status as a foster kid.

The first film served as an origin tale, and now the sequel, ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ continues the story of Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who, when he says the phrase “Shazam!” transforms into a grown superhero (Levi) with Superman-like powers.

At the end of the first film, Billy’s foster family also gained powers, and since then, the family has been working on fighting crime––though not always together.

They’ll need to unite, though, when a new menace in the shape of the Sisters of Atlas (Helen Mirren’s Hespera and Lucy Liu’s Kalypso) arrive on Earth none too happy that some “children” have the powers of the gods. Fight! Fight! Fight!

“We got this really cool look into all of the kids getting their super powers at the end of the first movie... We’ve all been flying around doing various missions trying to help the city of Philadelphia and the world at large,” Levi explained at the DC panel during last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. “We’re all just trying to figure it out. It adds for a really great interesting bedrock of reality that you can connect to as a human being because we’re super heroes but we’re human beings.”

The new trailer emphasizes the stakes of this follow-up film: the sisters are certainly not messing around and even Shazam and his “Shazamily”’s powers might not be enough to combat the fresh threat. Especially when the baddies have a dragon they can call upon (cue ‘Game of Thrones’ gags).

Billy’s confidence issues factor in once again––at one point here, he asks the wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who bestowed him with his abilities, to take them away and give them to someone who can actually help. But of course, it won’t be that easy…

Talking of “not easy”, questions remain about the character’s future in the DC movie Universe, given that new bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran are making big changes. But Levi, who is friends with Gunn, has asked fans to wait and see what happens. Given its livelier nature and focus on the fun side of DC, there’s every chance it could be sticking around.

The cast for the new movie also includes Rachel Zegler, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, D.J. Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews.

Warner Bros’ ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ will be in theaters on March 17th.