Henry Gayden to Pen Shazam! Sequel
Henry Gayden is ready to say the word once again. Deadline reports that the Shazam! writer has signed on to pen a sequel to the seventh installment in the DCEU. I have to be honest; this news is definitely a relief to me. Over the weekend, the narrative surrounding Shazam! seemed to shift a bit, with people comparing its success to that of Ant-Man because many worried about the box office being so “low.” One pundit even suggested that Shazam!’s future might be better as a streaming show, presumably on DC Universe. For the last couple of days, I was a little worried that the DC executives would take this to heart. I could totally see these actors growing with their roles in a way not too dissimilar to what we saw with the Harry Potter franchise, and I also didn’t like the idea of Zachary Levi not getting more movie opportunities. So I’m glad to see that the Shazam! sequel is moving full steam ahead.
The article also mentioned that David F. Sandberg and Peter Safran would be returning as director and producer of the Shazam! sequel, respectively. I’m particularly happy about the latter. While Sandberg was integral to the success of the first film, I’ve begun to see Safran as essentially the creative “face” of DC, while Walter Hamada seems to be more or less the Kathleen Kennedy of the company in the sense that he appears to be focused on the business side of things. While I’d love to hear from Hamada more often, it seems like what they’re doing thus far is working, so here’s hoping that other companies take some cues from DC – something Marvel might have to look at a couple of decades from now when Kevin Feige finally takes his well-deserved retirement and goes to the beach every day.
Are you excited that the creative auspices behind the big red cheese’s feature film debut are coming back for the Shazam! sequel? Let us know in the comments!
