‘Shazam! Fury Of The Gods’ Director David F. Sandberg: “After Six Years Of Shazam I’m Definitely Done With Superheroes For Now”

John F. Trent |

Mar 20, 2023

David F. Sandberg speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Shazam!", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg said he’s done with superhero films following the release of the DC film.

In a Twitter thread, Sandberg began writing, “On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film. I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well.”

He then indicated he would not be making any superhero films for the foreseeable future, “As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of Shazam I’m definitely done with superheroes for now.”

Sandberg then clarified, “Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the Shazam movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences.”

He concluded his thread writing, “One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not having to think about that anymore.”

To elucidate his point he pointed to a Reddit thread discussing his tweets with a headline reading, “David F. Sandberg blames fans on the failure of Shazam.”

Commenting on the thread, Sandberg tweeted, “So that tweet gets turned into this Reddit post and before you know it you risk it becoming accepted truth online and you’ll never hear the end of it. Exhausting.”

He added, “And I have it pretty easy. The most disheartening thing was seeing the comments on Leslie Grace’s instagram going ‘Haha your movie got cancelled!’, ‘you’re not my Batgirl’ etc.”

“And this isn’t limited to superhero fandom. It’s just sad,” he concluded.

His comments echo those he he made back in April 2022 when he explained why he lost interest in making a Superman film.

In an Instagram AMA he was asked, ““If you could choose any other DC hero to direct, which one?” He responded, “At one point I would have said Superman, but when there are so many different expectations and hardcore fans you’re going to piss off so many people no matter what you do.”

“Seeing how people react to things like The Last Jedi makes me want to stay away from things like that,” he added. “Shazam! was perfect in that there hadn’t been that many adaptations before. There are still people who think it was done wrong, but it was on a manageable level.”

Sandberg’s comments come amid an abysmal opening weekend box office haul for Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The film only grossed $30.1 million domestically and another $34.6 million internationally for a global gross of $64.7 million.

The first film had a higher opening weekend bringing in $53.5 million domestically without adjusting for inflation. It went on to earn $140.3 million domestically and $223.1 million internationally for a global gross of $363.5 million.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods will struggle to even gross $100 million throughout its entire domestic run at theatres.

This also means it’s unlikely another Shazam film gets made. Sandberg tweeted back at the end of February that Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ box office would be a major factor in determining if more Shazam stories would be made.

He wrote, “He definitely won’t if people don’t go see the movie. What I’ve been told is that there’s nothing in the Shazam films that contradict the future plans for DC. So the possibility for more Shazam is there and if that’s what you want your best bet is to go see the film.”