As we near the reported start date for production on the upcoming Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Warner Bros. Pictures has started to fill out their cast for the sequel and they’ve added a major role. TheWrap brings word that Rachel Zegler, who will make her film debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming remake of West Side Story later this year, has joined the sequel in a key role. What exactly that role is remains to be seen with the trade reporting that it is being kept under wraps for the time being. Zegler prepped her followers on social media for the announcement earlier, adding after it was made official: “i am in my key role in shazam 2 era.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
Filming on the sequel was previously said to begin in May of this year ahead of the movie’s debut in 2023. Zegler joins a cast that includes Zachary Levi as the titular hero, playing the magical version of Asher Angel’s Billy Batson. The sequel will presumably ring back Billy’s entire foster family including Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Eugene (Ian Chen), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Darla (Faithe Herman) and Mary (Grace Fulton). As fans recall, they entire group was granted the same superpowers as Billy at the end of the first film, with the adult-sized Shazamily (Adam Brody, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Meagan Good, and Michelle Borth) all seemingly returning as well.
i am in my key role in shazam 2 era
— rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) February 25, 2021
David F. Sandberg will be back behind the camera once again, previously joking when the movie was delayed to 2023 that the young stars will have grown to the point that facial hair will have sprouted on them.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now a summer 2023 film,” Sandberg tweeted about the movie’s delay in October. He jokingly added, “WB was like ‘can’t you just use fake beards on the kids?’ and I was like ‘If Tom Cruise is going to space for real then we can wait for the kids to grow real beards! It’s an important plot point.”
Levi previously made a similar joke at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention back in 2019, saying: “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.”
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently scheduled to be released on June 2, 2023.
