With the film topping the box office this past weekend with $159.1 million worldwide, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and DC Films are jumping straight into a sequel to Shazam!, with The Wrap reporting that screenwriter Henry Gayden has signed on to pen the script for Shazam! 2.
The outlet reports that Gayden, who is currently adapting the sci-fi novel Last Human for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is expected to be joined on the sequel by director David F. Sanberg and producer Peter Safran, although their deals are yet to close.
Produced on a budget of around $100 million, a modest figure for a superhero blockbuster, Shazam! has proven to be a hit with critics and fans alike, and continues the reversal in fortune for the DC Extended Universe that kicked off this past December with the enormous box office success of Aquaman.
Next up from DC Films is the standalone Joker origin movie, which impressed with its first trailer last week ahead of the film’s release in October. Meanwhile, we’ll revisit the DCEU next year with the release of Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984, followed by The Batman and The Suicide Squad in 2021.
Shazam sees Zachary Levi starring as the titular superhero, with Asher Angel as his young alter-ego Billy Batson, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vasquez, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as the Wizard, Adam Brody as Freddie Freeman, Ross Butler as Eugene Choi, D. J. Cotrona as Pedro Pena, Meagan Good as Darla Dudley, and Michelle Borth as Mary Bromfield.
