Shazam! Fury of the Gods is about to hit theaters – but sadly director David F. Sandberg won’t be attending the film’s premiere, due to COVID-19. Sandberg seemed in good enough spirits when making the announcement to fans on social media; he posted a picture of his positive COVID test result, with the caption, “Sadly I won’t be going to the Shazam premiere tonight because I finally caught Covid. Had to travel all over Europe and talk to a ton of entertainment journalists but I finally caught that bastard!”
Sadly I won’t be going to the Shazam premiere tonight because I finally caught Covid. Had to travel all over Europe and talk to a ton of entertainment journalists but I finally caught that bastard! pic.twitter.com/etaj9xveUo
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) March 14, 2023
Hollywood has largely gotten back to business as usual, following the years of disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns across much of the world. It’s easy to forget now that the virus is still lurking out there, and it can still leave people facing bad or inconvenient (if not dire) circumstances when fresh infections pop up. However, as Sandberg indicates in his post, he did have a pretty good run (3 years) avoiding COVID, while still working on big projects like Shazam! 2. At this point, it seems like it is inevitable that everyone will get their turn at having to quarantine while they go through the process of getting (and getting rid of) COVID. Thankfully, for most of us, the experience won’t cost us one of the more rewarding and fun nights we can have in our careers…
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods brings back Asher Angel and Zachary Levi as Billy Batson / Shazam!, Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield, Adam Brody as Super Hero Freddy, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Meagan Good as Super Hero Darla, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Ross Butler as Super Hero Eugene, Jovan Armand as Pedro Pena, D.J. Cotrona as Super Hero Pedro, Marta Milans as Rosa Vasquez, and Cooper Andrews as Victor Vasquez. New cast additions for the sequel include Rachel Zegler as Anthea, Helen Mirren as Hespera, and Lucy Liu as Kalypso.
As we go into opening weekend for Shazam! 2, there are already major spoilers about DC character cameos leaking out, hinting that the sequel will indeed have some fun surprises for fans.
“Well there’s some big Shazam spoilers out there now,” Sandberg said, addressing the leaks. “If you want to go in fresh maybe don’t be online or watch tv with ads… Pretty good advice in general actually.”
Indeed it is good advice.
If there is any silver lining to all this, David F. Sandberg will now miss a red carpet full of questions about what the future of Shazam! is under James Gunn’s new DC Studios franchise.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters on Friday.
