Zachary Levi Says Warner Bros. Wants to Make Shazam! 2 “As Soon as Possible”

Warner Bros. and New Line are both “very happy” with the David F. Sandberg-directed Shazam! and want to make a sequel “as soon as possible” because of growing teen stars Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer, says leading man Zachary Levi.

“The truth is, I don’t really know anything,” Levi said when asked about the sequel at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention.

“I know that I’m gonna have a conversation with my bosses pretty soon about what the idea is and where we’re going with the new movie, but all I really know is that New Line, our studio, and Warner Brothers, our parent studio, and DC, and our producers and executives and everybody who’s involved in all of the decision making, they’re all very happy with what we did. They want to do even better the second time around, and they are crafting a story right now as we speak about what that sequel is going to be.”

The franchise, best described as Superman meets Big, sees Billy Batson (Angel) and superhero aficionado best friend Freddy Freeman (Grazer) transform into adult-sized crime-fighters with the utterance of magic word “Shazam!”

These powers are shared by the boys’ foster family — Mary (Grace Fulton), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Eugene (Ian Chen) and Darla (Faithe Herman) — meaning the producers’ fight against time, and puberty, extends beyond 16-year-old Angel and 15-year-old Grazer.

“The only other thing I know is they want to make it as soon as possible because those kids are growing up like weeds, so if we don’t do that in like the next two days, they’re gonna be full grown adults,” Levi added with a laugh.

Levi then recalled returning for additional photography after six months away, during which time both Asher and Grazer grew dramatically.

“We did principal photography, meaning the bulk of the filming on Shazam!, we did that over the course of four months or so in Toronto, Canada,” Levi said.

“Then we had about a six-month break, we came back to do additional photography … In the six months from when we stopped principal photography to when we started additional photography, Jack and Asher quite literally grew so much that they couldn’t match their faces with what they looked like six months prior.”

Levi added: “So if we don’t shoot another movie real quick, then they’re just gonna be men. There’s no point in saying ‘Shazam’ to transform, they’re already transformed! So that’s all I can tell you about the sequel, but I’m very excited to get into it, making it, and I hope you all enjoy it when we do.”

Also at CCXP, Levi said he’s hopeful sequels explore deeper connections to the wider DC Extended Universe in the lead up to Shazam’s clash with “ultimate bad guy” Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), a crossover Levi revealed wouldn’t happen until Shazam! 3.

Shazam! is available to own on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray July 16.