Shazam! 2 Update: Sequel Starts Filming “Really Soon”

Shazam! 2 begins filming "really soon," according to returning star Asher Angel, who says he's yet to see a script for the DC Films sequel. Also returning is Asher's co-star Zachary Levi — back as the grown-up, superpowered alter-ego of Angel's street smart foster kid Billy Batson — and director David F. Sandberg, who struck lightning with the smaller-budgeted and family-friendly Shazam! to the tune of $364 million worldwide. Asher says he's yet to set eyes on the script penned by returning scribe Henry Gayden, but he's "super excited" to return to the DC Comics universe and reunite with Levi in the sequel set for April 2022:

"I think we start filming really soon, so I'm super excited," Angel told ET Live. "I don't know [what happens] — I haven't read the script yet."

Asked about his looming reunion with Levi, Angel added, "I'm so excited. I can't wait to see him. I feel like I haven't seen him in a long time. He keeps inviting me out to Texas — well, I'm kind of inviting myself out there, because that's where he lives — but he's like, 'Asher, come to Texas.' I'm like, 'Bro, where's my invite?' But he's the best, I'm so proud of him and I can't wait to see him."

In a June interview with the Associated Press, Levi anticipated filming on the sequel to start by late spring or early summer 2020. The star later said studio Warner Bros. wanted to put the sequel into motion "as soon as possible" because of 17-year-old Angel and 16-year-old co-star Jack Dylan Grazer.

"The truth is, I don't really know anything," Levi said of a sequel during a German convention over the summer. "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."

Levi continued, "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."

Story details remain under wraps, but Sandberg suggested in a past interview the sequel would spend more time with the "Shazamily" — Billy's foster siblings who can tap into the same mythic power that turns the children into super-powered adult figures.

"It feels like we could do more with the Shazam family. We just introduced them, but you could explore how they work as a family of heroes," Sandberg told Backstory Magazine when asked about possible directions for the sequel. "And we threw in a little mid-credits scene with Mister Mind, and you could go down that road. Or you could introduce another villain. There are plenty of ones to choose from in the Shazam world."

Shazam! 2 is scheduled for April 1, 2022.