Shazam! Director Reveals Why Costume Was Changed for Sequel

The highly anticipated sequel to Shazam! is currently shooting principal photography, and photos already leaked of the eponymous hero’s new suit. According to Shazam! Fury of the Gods helmer David F. Sandberg, it was always in the plans to change up the suit, while still being accurate to the comics. Sandberg’s comments came during a break of filming, as the helmer headed to his Instagram account to field questions from fans.

“Why not? Might as well try some different things this time around and not just do the same thing twice,” Sandberg said to one fan. In a follow-up response, Sandberg said he let the costume department know a few of the things he wanted to see, and they took it all from there.

“I told Louise some of the things I wanted this time,” the director added. “Her and her team designed and created it beautifully incorporating the things I asked for, we showed the studio and they thought it looked great and didn’t have any notes.”

Shortly after the initial suit pictures leaked online this week, Sandberg released an official teaser to his social profiles featuring Zach Levi’s take on the character teasing his new suit. At the time, Sandberg said an official look would come “soon…ish.”

“Yes, there were a few iterations,” Sandberg previously said of the suits in the first movie. “And you sort of have to keep changing stuff even after we started shooting because you realize things… You shoot the first scene and Zach (Levi) is like, ‘You know, I can’t move my hands properly with these gauntlets.’ So, we had to redesign that, or like the boots kept falling apart so it’s like, ‘Oh well, I guess we have to do something different there,’ It was sort of a constant process of updating and making it work better.”

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will follow Billy Batson (Asher Angel), and presumable his foster family, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Eugene (Ian Chen), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Darla (Faithe Herman) and Mary (Grace Fulton) — who were granted the same superpowers first entrusted to Billy by an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou), transforming them into the adult-sized Shazamily (Adam Brody, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Meagan Good, and Michelle Borth). New cast members will include Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods opens in theaters on June 2, 2023.

What’d you think of Shazam’s new duds? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!