Shazam! Fury of the Gods finally lands in a rainy windswept Los Angeles tonight for its premiere at the Regency Village. But the franchise’s filmmaker David F. Sandberg won’t be in attendance after testing positive for Covid.
Taking to social, Sandberg wrote, “Sadly I won’t be going to the Shazam premiere tonight because I finally caught Covid. Had to travel all over Europe and talk to a ton of entertainment journalists but I finally caught that bastard!”
He added, “Seriously though I’m so grateful to have gotten to work with such an amazing cast and crew and I’m glad I got to at least join some of them for the European screenings. Have the best of times tonight! #ShazamFuryOfTheGods”.
The sequel, which was previously scheduled to open December 21 before New Line/Warner Bros moved it away from Avatar: The Way of Water, is expected to gross $80M-$85M in its global debut this weekend.
Newly hired DC bosses Peter Safran and James Gunn said at their press day in January that they’re still interested in working with the actors and actresses previously cast as big DC superheroes (that includes Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Zachary Levi as Shazam). Those statements arrived in the wake of rumors that the DC chiefs were turning the Zack Snyder-designed DC inside out.
Levi took to social media in December to defend Gunn and Safran’s vision, urging fans to not believe in “conjecture and rumor mills.”