Shazam 2’s post-credits scenes tease a possible DC Films future

A lot has happened since the 2019 release of Shazam! and its new sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The future of Warner Bros.’ DC Comics films has radically changed, for one thing, and I’m not talking about Black Adam.

So what happens in the credits scenes of Fury of the Gods? After all, that’s traditionally where a superhero movie hints at what’s in store for the future of its heroes. And Shazam! Fury of the Gods is no different.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.]

Shazam: Fury of the Gods! has two credits scenes, and the first points directly at the wider DC Universe — or, at least, one version of it.

Shazam joins the Justice Society

Agents Harcourt and Economos of HBO Max’s Peacemaker grumble down a back road in an undisclosed backwoods location to meet up with their contact: Shazam, who is amusing himself by popping empty bottles in a dilapidated gas station. They’ve set up the meeting on behalf of Amanda Waller, who has warned them that Philly’s resident superhero is extremely powerful and “a little immature,” but she thinks he could be a good addition to “the team.” She even knows that Shazam and Billy Batson are the same person.

And a moment later, we find out which team she meant. Harcourt and Economos offer Billy a chance to join the Justice Society. He agrees immediately, even though he’s disappointed that they didn’t mean the Justice League. What’s the difference? The agents are vague. “The Justice Society is different from the Justice League because of how words work,” snarks Harcourt.

One joke about how they should change the name to “the Avenger Society,” and we’re back to the actual credits — Shazam has joined the Justice Society, which made its live action film debut in Black Adam last year.

Unfortunately, there’s no real-world indication that we’ll ever actually see him alongside Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and the rest. There are no Justice Society or Shazam films on Warner Bros.’ recently retooled slate of DC Comics films, not until the back half of this decade at the earliest, after Superman: Legacy hits theaters in 2025. The closest potential home for Zachary Levi’s Shazam is the Amanda Waller-based spinoff TV series Waller, still in development and not expected to premiere until just before Superman: Legacy — and again, there’s no indication that Shazam will be involved in it.

So, despite the presence of Peacemaker characters linking this scene to DC Films co-CEO James Gunn, there’s no clear indication of where this particular plot thread is leading. And that’s pretty much the case for Fury of the Gods’ second credits scene as well.

Mister Mind is… still at it

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

If you recall your Shazam! lore, you may remember that the 2019 movie’s credits scene featured its main villain, Mark Strong’s Doctor Sivana, having a little chat (literally) with Mister Mind. That is, the diabolical worm genius who is among the superhero’s greatest comic book enemies, along with Sivana and Black Adam. Mind promised that he had a plan to take down Shazam once and for all.

So where was Mister Mind for all of Fury of the Gods? According to director David Sandberg and writer Henry Gayden, they just couldn’t make the character work in this movie.

“I started working on the sequel a couple of weeks after the first one came out,” Gayden tells Polygon over video chat, “and it started out with Mister Mind and Sivana, really trying to follow that story up. Some of the stuff in that draft I love to this day, but at the end of the day, the whole movie felt like a repeat of the first movie, just with this Mister Mind character. It didn’t feel like it elevated; it felt a little redundant.”

In that first version of the script, Sandberg says, “it was actually Mister Mind that enabled the [Daughters of Atlas] to come to Earth, as part of a bigger plan of his. But it was just too much story to tell and just didn’t fit.”

In order for Fury of the Gods to really emphasize Billy’s core conflict — holding on to the family he’s got after not having one for so long — Sandberg and Gayden said they had to create original villains who could be a mirror to his situation: another set of siblings with superpowers that could be given and taken away.

In that way, this second Mister Mind scene is a knowing joke. It’s pretty much exactly the same scene as written in Shazam!, but this time, Sivana complains that Mister Mind still hasn’t done his evil plan! Mind tells him, well, it’s very difficult for him to get places quickly! Because he is just a small worm!

But they won’t have to wait much longer, he promises, as if he’s about to finally spill the beans on his machinations, and then… “Just one more thing I need to do,” he says, and immediately worms away.

Where will we finally see Mister Mind’s evil plan enacted? Well, as explained above, there’s really no telling. This may truly be the last we’ve seen of the world’s worst worm.