David F. Sandberg humorously adds Henry Cavill’s Superman to Shazam!

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

While we thought we had seen the last of Henry Cavill as Superman in JUSTICE LEAGUE, the character actually showed up several years later in the final moments of SHAZAM!, when Billy Batson (Angel Asher) showed up at Fawcett High School as Shazam (Zachary Levi) to have lunch with Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), and he brought a certain Man of Steel along with him. Although we never saw his face in the scene, the actor playing Superman is wearing Henry Cavill's JUSTICE LEAGUE suit.

SHAZAM! producer Peter Safran said last year that the original intention was for Cavill to make a proper cameo in this scene. "At one point, we'd hoped it was going to be Cavill doing it, but unfortunately his schedule didn't allow him to do it," Safran said. "We still wanted to do it anyway, and it turned out to be better, because it let us do a hard cut on Freddy's reaction, because if we had Cavill there, we'd actually written lines, they had a dialogue, but then it's a little bit of a hat on hat, because really what it's about is Freddy's reaction, so we got to get out on that." With recent news pointing to Henry Cavill returning to the DCEU as Superman, some fans have called upon SHAZAM! director David F. Sandberg to redo that final scene with Cavill's involvement. Well, the director took to Twitter today to deliver, and although it may not be exactly what fans were expecting, it's definitely hilarious and well worth a watch.

As far as the SHAZAM! sequel goes, the COVID-19 shut-down has obviously delayed the film. David F. Sandberg offered an update on the sequel last month, saying, "The plan has always been to start shooting this year. I mean, we’ll see what happens with this Coronavirus thing, how long it will last and how it will affect everything. It’s all very uncertain at the moment." Even with that uncertainty in the air, development on the sequel was still only in the scripting phase. "It was already in quite early stages, because it doesn’t come out until 2022," Sandberg added. "It didn’t feel like we were up against a clock." Taking the helm of SHAZAM was something of a departure for Sandberg, who was known for helming horror movies such as LIGHTS OUT and ANNABELLE: CREATION, but he's excited to head back for another helping of Shazam!.

On Lights Out everything was new and scary, and then Annabelle: Creation was such a great experience where it felt like, 'OK, now I know how this works’. I'm hoping for the same thing on Shazam. The first one was like, 'Oh shit, how do you do all these things? I've never done a superhero movie before, with the visual effects and everything.' Now it feels like I know how this works, so for the sequel we can have more fun and really get into it, you know?

SHAZAM 2 is slated to hit theaters on November 4, 2022.