Shazam! opened to positive reviews and solid box office numbers in 2019, but the wait for the sequel has proved to be a long one. Production has already wrapped on Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but it won't electrify audiences until mid-2023. It's unclear why Warner Bros. is holding off on sharing the movie sooner, but it could very well be because Black Adam will be released next year.
Regardless, Collider recently caught up with Zachary Levi to discuss his new movie American Underdog, and the actor made it clear he believes the sequel will be even better than its predecessor.
"I will say that I genuinely — and this is not just lip service — I'm really proud of the first one, I think we made a really, really good movie. I think the second one is better. I think that we had more time, we had more budget," the actor explained. "We had, essentially, the entire cast returning, and we all knew our characters a little bit more; we could kind of sit into them a little bit more."
"Henry Gayden, who wrote the first script, wrote the second, and he did a fantastic job doing so. Everything just clicked even a little bit more. And also the kids have grown up a little bit more, so even the sensibilities of them become even slightly more mature which brings it closer to my or other people's adult minds, so there's even more connection there, I think."
"The action's great, the comedy's great, the relationships are great," Levi continued before highlighting some of Shazam! Fury of the Gods' new casting additions. "The bad guys, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu, are fantastic. I'm very proud of it. I want it to come out sooner than June of 2023."
The first movie served as a great introduction to Shazam and his Family, but a follow-up that's even grander in scale is exciting for a lot of reasons. Fans continue to hope that the stage will be set for the title character to clash with Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, but that meeting doesn't look likely to happen for a while yet. Hopefully, the upcoming movies at least lay the groundwork for a crossover!
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to be released on June 2, 2023.