FOR ONCE THE hoariest of Hollywood soundbites is absolutely true: it's all about family. That's the operative word behind Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, a DC blockbuster that not only makes a compelling case for the superiority of exclamation marks over colons in movie titles but which also pits Billy Batson and his superpowered clan against a sisterhood of goddesses. And you thought Christmas was a crossfire of family dynamics...
"In a lot of movies the whole character journey is like, 'Oh, they're missing this thing in their life' and then at the end of the movie they get what they're missing," says director David F Sandberg, returning to the realm of capes after 2019's Shazam!. "So then in a sequel you often have to take that away and start from scratch again.
"In this one it's pretty interesting because in the first film what Billy really wants in life is a family and he gets a family at the end. Now they're getting older, and they're getting older very quickly, so they're not going to be able to live in a foster home forever. So Billy is very concerned about losing this family that he's just found. He's trying to keep them all together."
Based on the true, original Captain Marvel, who burst into four-colour life in 1940, the first movie had the power of wish-fulfilment at its heart. When Asher Angel's teenage Billy utters the enchanted word "Shazam!" he's transformed into the World's Mightiest Mortal in the form of Zachary Levi. The sequel doubles down on this quintessential kid fantasy as Billy's equally supersized foster siblings the Shazam Family of the comics - are presented in their full spandexy pomp.
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Denne historien er fra March 2023-utgaven av SFX UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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True Detective - The Only Way Is Essex for Jessica Jones in Lisa Jewell's first Marvel Crime novel
Known for bestselling psychological thrillers such as Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs, Jewell says she initially overemphasised the Marvel Universe’s fantastical elements before realising that she should simply trust her natural instincts. “I went too far on many occasions and had to keep cutting stuff out because I’d end up with stuff like a huge underground lab full of mad scientists,” she laughs.
Future Shock - Futurama's David X Cohen talks about what's in store for the show's ninth season
Futurama's David X Cohen talks about what's in store for the show's ninth season
Who Says
The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz return - we're all ears
Parallel Doomsday
Terminator Zero creator Mattson Tomlin explains where the anime series fits within canon
Growing Your Hare
Daniel Kokotajlo talks about his '70s-set folk horror film Starve Acre
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