Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the next movie to come from the DC universe, is just days away from releasing worldwide, but unfortunately it’s tracking for the weakest box office opening in the entire franchise. In a curious move, then, Warner Bros. seems to be making a last-ditch effort to drum up some extra interest in the superhero sequel by attempting to borrow some cues from another of the studio’s (failed, it has to be said) series, the Fantastic Beasts movies.
In this new featurette, which you can see above, Zachary Levi does his best impression of Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander by listing the various mythological creatures who’ll be showing up in Fury of the Gods, ranging from minotaurs to cyclops. We guess with one TV spot spoiling the film’s big DCEU crossover cameo, which seriously angered director David F. Sandberg, the marketing has already blown the big ace up its sleeve so is now reduced to picking up some points from Potterheads.
Fury of the Gods will have a strong flavor of Greek legends thanks to the introduction of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as Hespera and Kalypso, the daughters of Atlas, who will pit themselves against Levi’s Billy Batson and his Shazamily in a bid to get back the superpowers they believe have been stolen from the gods. Rachel Zegler is also on board as Anthea, the third of Atlas’ daughters who becomes an unexpected ally to the Shazam fam.
If you think about it, the DC and Harry Potter universes have a lot in common. On top of being produced by WB, they’re both saddled with Ezra Miller and are both in desperate need of a reboot. Luckily for DC, James Gunn is about to provide that much-needed restart. Maybe the studio should just get him to do the same with the Wizarding World while he’s at it? Maybe Shazam could go to Hogwarts in the third movie. Hey, we’re just spitballing here.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is out in theaters from March 17.