Shazam! Director Responds to Fan Criticism With Hilarious Muppets Crossover

More bizarre, and arguably more common, than the periodic debates between Marvel and DC fans is a [...]

By Russ Burlingame

More bizarre, and arguably more common, than the periodic debates between Marvel and DC fans is a schism within the ranks of DC moviegoers. In broad terms, there is a group of DC fans who want movies that are deeply serious and examine, with Watchmen-like clinical detachment, what superheroes might be like if they came to the real world. On the other hand, there are fans whose gold standard is Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie, and who want light, family-friendly adventure fare. It's a little bit more complicated than that, but not much.

And one of the movies that the former -- usually fans of Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- often take aim at is Shazam!, David F. Sandberg's hit adaptation of the exploits of the original Captain Marvel. Earlier today, Sandberg fired back, with another of his hilarious "edits" to his film, periodically shared recently via Twitter.

This time around? After being accused of making a movie for kids, Sandberg invited The Muppets to play.

You can see it below.

Taking the scene in which Shazam learns how to fly, Sandberg spliced the moment where Billy is hit by a truck with part of the music video for "Movin' Right Along," performed by Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) and Fozzie Bear (Frank Oz) in The Muppet Movie.

The gag has been a hit with most of DC Films Twitter, and has drawn out support for Sandberg and Shazam! from Snyder fans who don't like to see any director tagged in mean-spirited criticism of their work, since that happened so often to Snyder when he was still active on Twitter.

While it's unlikely the Disney-owned Muppets will show up in the planned sequel, series star Zachary Levi has said that he has high expectations for the film, which is likely to begin principal photography in 2021.

"The truth is, I don't know much because they're still working on the script," Levi said when asked about Shazam! 2 during a virtual appearance at Awesome-Con Online 2020. "I know some general stuff and I'm super stoked about all of the general stuff that I've heard. But ultimately what I want, I want the movie to be better than what we gave people the first time, which I think was a really good movie."

Shazam! 2 is scheduled to be in theaters November 4, 2022.

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