Yahoo Movies Shazam! Fury of the Gods: Post-credits scenes explained
There's a lot to break down
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the sequel to the hit 2019 DC movie that introduced cinema audiences to boy-turned-grown-up superhero, Billy Batson, bestowed with magical powers by an ancient wizard. And it’s given us not none, not one, but two post-credits stingers that could leave fans hopeful about the future for the Shazam family.
A DC Universe reboot is presently in motion with marshals James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm. But with Shazam! Fury of the Gods releasing, and The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom still to come, things aren’t quite dead yet for the outgoing DC Extended Universe and its associated projects. The Flash looks to be the most cohesive way to transition from one universe to the next without simply ignoring what went before, since it opens up the multiverse.
Read more: Everything we know about Shazam! Fury of the Gods
The post-credits sequences in Shazam! Fury of the Gods prove that there’s still space for Billy Batson and his family of Shazam! champions under the new regime. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Shazam! Fury of the Gods mid-credits and post-credits scenes and explain what’s happening – and what it means for the franchise’s future.
Warning: spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods coming up...
You have been warned.
What happens in Shazam! Fury of the Gods mid-credits scene?
The Shazam! Fury of the Gods mid-credits scene shows Amanda Waller’s A.R.G.U.S. agents John Economos (Steve Agee) and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) walking together through woodland.
We last saw both characters together in the James Gunn-created Peacemaker series. Both also appeared in his Suicide Squad film, while Harcourt popped up fairly recently in Black Adam.
Harcourt reveals, in a snappy exchange with her colleague, that Waller has sent them to (potentially) recruit the person they’re here to meet as a new member of “the team”.
Read more: The best Shazam 2 Easter eggs
Now, as we’ve established, Amanda Waller heads up the US government organisation A.R.G.U.S. The division utilises super-powered individuals to combat major threats, protect the country, and anything else deemed necessary. It’s the organisation behind Task Force X aka the Suicide Squad – a group of supervillain convicts assembled to do the agency’s bidding, usually highly dangerous black ops missions, with the promise of reduced sentences. Under threat of death via head bomb if they disobey orders.
But given that Billy Batson is a superhero, not a supervillain, and isn’t in prison, we can infer that Waller is recruiting for an alternative team. We also know she’s responsible for the Justice Society, another team but this one incorporates less morally murky super powered individuals, introduced onto the big screen in Black Adam.
Read more: Zachary Levi talks Shazam future
They come upon Batson in full Shazam form — he has now officially been given the superhero name of Shazam by the wizard — and Harcourt announces that they know who he is and they have an offer to make.
Wait, is Black Adam’s Justice Society coming back?
Given Billy’s obsession with the Justice League heroes, and in particular Wonder Woman, he cuts Harcourt off before she can finish, agreeing to joining.
He’s confused when she finishes with, “Welcome to the Justice Society.” She explains that the Justice Society is different from the Justice League because “of how words work.” It’s not clear whether he’s in or out as the scene ends – but the sequence sets up his inclusion in the team we first met in Black Adam.
This gives the clearest indication yet that Shazam will remain a part of the Gunn/Safran steered DCU. If there were no intentions of bringing Shazam into the new DCU, it would have been easy for the bosses to cut this mid-credits scene, and simply leave the post-credits sequence at the end intact. If Shazam were to be made redundant now, it would be a cruel blow to fans to tease more only to shut it down further along the line.
Read more: Aldis Hodge on the future of the Justice Society
It does give us cause to wonder whether we will see the Justice Society members that were introduced in Black Adam again, too, of course. Equally, could we get a Justice Society reboot? Perhaps.
But the Justice Society in its current iteration, with Shazam recruited, could work really well with Gunn’s Task Force X. All the characters have a sense of humour that is in keeping with Gunn’s approach.
What Happens in Shazam! Fury of the Gods post-credits scene?
Audience members left wondering what of the tease of Mister Mind during the post-credits sequence of the original Shazam! movie were given some resolution in the Fury of the Gods post-credits stinger.
The scene saw an incarcerated Dr Sivana – the villain from the first movie, played by Mark Strong – still locked in the same cell two years later, shown by his full beard and moustache. The walls are still covered with his scribblings, including an image of Shazam with a noose around his neck.
Read more: David F Sandberg explains Mr Mind credits sting
The original stinger hinted at a super-villain team-up potentially leading to the formation of the Monster Society of Evil from the comics. In the scene, Mister Mind suggested he was more powerful than the gods – who Shazam has just come up against in the sequel – and promises Sivana fun taking the Seven Realms together. The Seven Realms are the Seven Magiclands from the comics accessed via the Rock of Eternity – where the Shazam family have established their lair.
When Mister Mind reappears to Sivana, he blames his long absence on his slow movement. He’s a two-inch long worm after all. An alien worm with genius-level intellect and telepathic powers, but a worm nonetheless.
Mister Mind tells Sivana that in order to implement the perfect plan, “one must have patience”.
Sivana is champing at the bit to learn more about Mister Mind’s plan – but unfortunately for him, Mister Mind leaves him alone once more, saying that there’s just one more thing he needs to do.
Read more: The hidden Justice League cameos in Shazam!
The purpose of this post-credits sequence could be a way of setting up the story for a potential third adventure for Shazam, the one we might have at one point expected to see in the second film, based on the tease in the first’s stinger. And now that we’ve seen more of the scope of the Rock of Eternity in Fury of the Gods, a story about Mister Mind and Sivana attempting to take over the Seven Realms would flow nicely on from the close of this film.
However, it could also just be an amusing add-on, tying up the loose end left by an unexplored post-credits sequence included just for fun. The joke being that Mister Mind is slow – and Sivana still has a long wait inside those four walls ahead of him.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in cinemas now. Watch a trailer below.
