Shazam!'s Zachary Levi Reacts to Helen Mirren's Casting News

Shazam! Fury of the Gods recently went into pre-production and is expected to begin filming soon. [...]

By Jamie Jirak

Shazam! Fury of the Gods recently went into pre-production and is expected to begin filming soon. The movie will see the return of Zachary Levi in the titular role as well as the whole Shazam family. In addition to the returning cast members, it was announced this week that Oscar-winning actor, Helen Mirren, would be joining the sequel as the villain Hespera, a daughter of Atlas. Mirren will be following in the footsteps of Mark Strong, who played Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, the first movie's villain. Earlier today, Levi took to Twitter to celebrate the exciting casting news.

"I. Can't. WAAAAAAAIIIIIIIT!!! 🙌💃," Levi wrote. You can check out the tweet below:

"I can't really talk about villains or villain, but I think a lot of people will be surprised," director David F. Sandberg said during a Q&A as part of DC FanDome last year. "It's gonna be a little unexpected." He wasn't wrong... We are surprised AND excited!

A post-credits scene in the first Shazam! revealed a new growing threat when Sivana was approached by the telepathic space-worm Mister Mind. There's still no word on whether or not Strong will be returning for the sequel and whether or not the teased villain alliance will affect what happens with Mirren's role.

Mirren is not the only new actor to be joining the DCEU sequel. It was recently revealed that West Side Story star Rachel Zeigler was cast in an unknown key role. The sequel will also see the return of Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and his foster family, including Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Eugene (Ian Chen), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Darla (Faithe Herman), and Mary (Grace Fulton). In the first film, they were all granted the same superpowers first given to Billy by an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou), transforming them into the adult-sized Shazamily (Adam Brody, Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Meagan Good, and Michelle Borth).

Like so many films, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has been forced to delay multiple times for both development reasons and the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie has been assigned three different release dates including April 1, 2022, later November 4, 2022, and it's currently scheduled to release on June 2, 2023.

"Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now a summer 2023 film," Sandberg tweeted about the movie's delay last year. 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.'"

Are you excited to see Helen Mirren in Shazam! Fury of the Gods? Tell us in the comments!

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