Before joining the Shazam! franchise, filmmaker David F. Sandberg was best known for horror projects like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.
He brought some of those horror sensibilities to that first DC movie courtesy of the Seven Deadly Sins, and 2019's Shazam! remains one of the best-reviewed DCEU releases. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, however, was a critical and commercial flop when it followed four years later.
The sequel utilised newly created villains rather than making good on that Mister Mind tease, but included a big DCEU cameo courtesy of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. Despite that, Fury of the Gods didn't resonate with fans or moviegoers, and Sandberg quickly moved on to adapt PlayStation horror game, Until Dawn.
However, his Shazam! experience very nearly put him off working on another popular IP.
"What I loved about the script [is] that it wasn't trying to recreate the game," Sandberg started. "Trying to condense 10 hours into two, or something like that. But it is scary still, even though we're doing a new thing.
"I mean, to be honest, fans can get very, very crazy and very angry with you. You can get, like, death threats and everything so after Shazam 2, I was like, 'I never wanna do another IP-based movie because it's just not worth it.'"
"But then I was sent this script, and I was like, 'Ah, this would be so much fun to do, to do all these kinds of horrors? I kind of have to do it, and hope that the people see what we're trying to do and like it,'" he continued. "I really thought it was brilliant of the writers to come up with this time loop idea where the night starts over because then you do kind of get that feel of the game, when you're replaying it and making different choices. I think it's very much in the spirit of the game."
Sandberg added, "I think we would've gotten a lot of critique if we had tried to [recreate the game], because people would've been like, 'It's not as good. It's not the same actors, because, you know, they're older now.' You wouldn't be able to better the game, so you'd just be in a losing situation."
We're not sure what Sandberg did to deserve death threats for Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The movie was undeniably mediocre, but there was nothing overtly offensive about the project. At that point, Zachary Levi hadn't gone on any bizarre social media rants, and Rachel Zegler had yet to upset Snow White fans.
Levi isn't expected to reprise his role as Shazam in DC Studios' DCU. The door has been left open for Dwayne Johnson to return as Black Adam, though we don't anticipate that happening either. As for Until Dawn, it arrives in theaters this weekend.