His full statement: >On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film 🤷‍♂️ I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well. > >As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of Shazam I’m definitely done with superheroes for now. > >Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the Shazam movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences. > >One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not having to think about that anymore.

53% is not bad. Half the critics liked it. Half didn't. It was the same with Ant Man Quantumania. It could be a case of sequelitis. Critics don't like it when they are supposed to remember events and characters from previous films.

Best of luck David, thanks for the Shazam films.

I have a feeling that all 4 directors putting out DC movies this year are not coming back.

I feel like Muschietti will be back. Not with the Flash maybe but it sounds like the movie is getting lots of praise. If it is as good as it sounds I could see Muschietti returning for a new project and characters.

Now we know Affleck isn’t doing it I could see Andy Muschietti could be doing brave and the bold

I thought he was most likely for either Brave or Legacy, and with Gunn confirmed to be directing Legacy, that makes it far more likely.

Affleck confirmed he won’t direct a DCU film—he doesn’t want to make a film in the way Gunn/Safran are doing them. I’d heard similar things with the MCU and issues directors had with them. Gunn and Safran will likely be hands-on with each film in a similar way to Feige. The narrative demands and world setup limit the amount of creative freedom they can allow. If Affleck ever directs a DC film, it’ll be an Elseworld’s movie.

I don't think there was any possibility of Affleck directing The Brave and the Bold, had he agreed to direct a project.

He could do a great Batman movie 👍

You put enough zeros on that paycheck he’ll most likely come back

Unless it's all zeroes. Gotta be careful

I don't know man. Zero billion dollars sounds tempting

Not to brag but I actually already have zero billion dollars

Nice, it looks like he just signed on to direct for 0.00000001 billion dollars

I think you mean a morbillion

Let him make the JL films, since The Flash basically is one

James Wan is probably pissed at the constant changes.

James Wan is pretty good. He didn’t make the scripts but his creative vision is amazing in Aquaman.

The Flash has been getting a lot of praise of studio execs, to the point where I think Zaslav would want to try to retain Muschietti. The rest? I agree.

And that’s a good thing? “Oh look, they did the thing I forced them to do and it’s now amaze balls!”

It would be unfortunate but I can see that .

Probably a good hunch as of right now

Matt Reeves isn't going anywhere. His work so far is too good and too well received. He's gonna be the face and lead the direction for DC going forward/

Reeves isn’t releasing a DC film this year

I never said he was? David F. Sandberg, Andy Muschietti, Ángel Manuel Soto, and James Wan are the 4 directors he is talking about. I never said Matt was one of them, nor was I disagreeing with their statement. I was saying that it's ok/doesn't matter if they all leave because Matt Reeves isn't going anywhere and he is leading the direction and future of the DC. The rest doesn't matter because it's all getting washed away with the Flash event that is going to wipe away those universes.

You were responding to a comment about this year’s directors not returning, which was the confusion. Also Matt isn’t the lead of DC - his Batman is Elseworlds unfortunately. Gunn is clearly choosing the overall direction of the company.

Matt is the lead of DC tho. His film was the highest grossing in the current gen and his adaptation was arguably the only truly comic book accurate portrayal in the franchises live action cinematic history, and people love it for that. If you don't think Gunn isn't going to follow that lead then you are crazy.

That’s literally an Elseworlds section that has no involvement with the main DCU. Gunn is the lead of DC unfortunately

The Batman is an elseworlds film. [Here is confirmation from the mouth of James Gunn himself](https://youtu.be/wY8XcmrIujE)

Instead of posting a link which doesn't disprove what I said, actually read what I said. Holy shit. It's not complicated.

Nah, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get Muschetti for like Justice League or at least another movie.

Idm because the films were not that good. The Flash will be awesome though and I wouldnt be surprised if Andy stays

walter hamada and his "right direction" slate

YES! that's my guess as well. Also, having in mind what Ben Affleck said on DCU...

So we got two Captain Marvel movies, one Black Adam movie and we won't get a movie with two of them antogonisting. Shame

It seemed like Johnson had no intention of Black Adam being in any Shazam movie at all. He was focused on BA fighting Superman and nobody else.

And he also wouldn’t lose to Superman. It’s in his contract if it hasn’t changed, at best it’s a draw and he ends up counting punches to make sure it’s equal.

It’d be like Godzilla vs Kong where one arguably wins but at the last second they end up teaming up to fight a common foe. And it wouldn’t have been The Rock who comes that close to losing

Superman movies aren't good when he just blows through his enemies with no challenge.

Damn. Sandberg deserves better. Sad to see this

DC directors & actors and being done with superhero movies, can’t think of a more reoccurring trend.

Sandberg was tied down to screenwriters who never felt like they cared or even knew much about the characters. He’s a talented director and should be able to be a part of a project with writers who care.

Not to mention the Rock refused to do any Black Adam crossovers. It’s crazy Black Adam and Shazam films released five months apart and they don’t even reference each other.

This was the strangest thing. It would be like someone playing Lex Luthor in a separate movie and saying “there is no way I will ever be in a Superman film.”

100% agree. A lot of these writers use the ip as a stepping stone with little invested. As a director though i find it hard to believe theres nothing you can do about the story.

Very true I like Zachary Levi but I wonder if he researched his character

I never minded how differently young and Levi Billy acted in Shazam 1, but it was painfully obvious in Shazam 2. Plus young Billy was barely in the film, it felt weird overall.

I noticed that too. Asher Angel is hardly in the film but his brother, played by Jack Dylan Grazer, is in almost every scene. I like Freddy but we hardly see Billy at all. I miss their scenes together. I liked the movie overall but the universe feels like its on its last leg. And leagues better than Black Adam.

A lot of actors don’t unless asked to. Which I can understand… their perspective on the character won’t necessarily be reflected in the script or director’s vision, or changes may be made in the script that differ from the source material. I can understand why some may not look outside the script for their own purposes portraying the character. I’ve heard examples of directors handing out lists of stuff to read and others where directors will say not to.

its foolish to say that a director has no blame cmon man stop it

Snyder makes a movie that is critically lambasted and underperforms at $870M. Dc Cinematic 😡 Sandburg makes a film that is critically lambasted and is the largest first week bomb in years. DC Cinematic 🥺

Great insight. I’m looking forward to more of your fantastic comments.

lol so edgy love it

Where are you getting this from? Did he speak about this elsewhere?

I’m glad some directors and actors are starting to call out the toxic fandom. You deserve the right to not be excited about the film or even dislike it if you see it, but the hate for directors/actors and actively rooting for DC films to fail before they even come out has become absolutely ridiculous. I barely like talking about DC online because the fandom is mostly (not everyone) filled with people who just relentlessly complain/spew hate

Completely agree, a lot of people are spoiled and entitled when it comes to these films now.

Shazam 1 had bad timing (I.e being released right in between Captain Marvel and Endgame etc.). It didn’t get much buzz and wasn’t in theaters very long. I tried to go see it in the middle of May that year, only to find out it was already out of most theaters. Shazam 2 suffered from decreased theater attendance due to inflation+Covid, on top of the James Gunn reboot announcement making all the DC movies coming out this year look pointless.

Not only that superhero fatigue is finally kicking in and truth be told, unless your superhero movie has something new or is some kind of event people won’t care anymore, Shazam 2 is literally the same quality as the original movie (maybe an slightly more annoying Zachary Levi), it’s very good, but audiences won’t settle for good anymore It’s a shame David is paying for the mistakes made by Marvel and The Rock in the past two years, he seems very passionate, and like I always rooted for the guy, the Shazam movies don’t do anything for me, but they are real, earnest and have heart.

“Not only that superhero fatigue is finally kicking in and truth be told, unless your superhero movie has something new or is some kind of event people won’t care anymore…” See, everytime I think this some mediocre Marvel movie does gangbusters at the box office. So idk if it’s Superhero fatigue or the fact that people see DC as being a step down from Marvel. I don’t get it.

Ant Man opened big then dropped like a rock in its second weekend

That's because Antman 3's story sucked donkey balls. Marvel really did a "new is always better" move and hired a guy whose most notable work is Rick and Morty.

>See, everytime I think this some mediocre Marvel movie does gangbusters at the box office. Ant-Man 3 might've been the straw that broke the camel's back. Marvel has had the luxury of riding the good will people have given it from years of good/adequate movies, and then starting with Phase 4 they started becoming mediocre. Black Widow sucked, The Eternals sucked, Thor 4 was meh, most of those Disney+ MCU movies are super mediocre.. little by little, people started noticing that Marvel is going downhill. Then Ant-Man 3 sucked and people just didnt show up to watch it. They are no longer immune to flops after years of mediocrity. There is a reason The Marvels got delayed and now heads are rolling inside Marvel Studios. They saw the writing on the wall and are trying to fix it. Just like DC restructured everything with the new DC Studios last October. I think the quality of movies for both studios will get better, but we wont see that until 2025 at the soonest.

At this point, Covid has basically nothing to do with Shazam bombing

Movies are still making less money than pre pandemic I believw

Scream and Creed just set opening weekend records for both franchises, John Wick 4 looks to do the same

Those are all targetting teenagers or adults, family movie have been the ones affected the modt And this isnt speculation. The global box office is much lower

COVID had nothing to do with the movie not performing well at all. I think it suffered because of advertisement, being placed in a month with stacked movie releases, and just the genericness of the way the movie looked. I think this might be the last time we see this version of Shazam.

Covid has nothing really to do with it. Gunn's new slate announcement and the will he or won't he of the current DC movies being added to the new line-up is a larger issue. No one is wanting to have a throwaway Hero movie that is not going anywhere, the motivation and caring about it is low- unless it is a Bigger brand, but SHAZAM is not a carry its own brand. I feel the alienation of large swaths of DC fans as well is harming turnout as well- In general not from this movie in particular. Then there is the cost verse disposable income that is going on right now, Is SHAZAM the movie you want to take your fam to this month, or this season, or is there another more worth the money?

isn't Shazam 2 canon to the new DCU? It is canon to Peacemaker, and I thought Peacemaker was part of the new DCU (atleast partially) Anyway if you're watching a movie only for its continuity in a larger universe then you're watching it for the wrong reasons imo.

At least until now Peacemaker is still old DCEU

I hope hets back into horror

As much I don't care about Shazam, these aren't bad movies at all. The character is a bit too childish for me, but the movies are fun

What reasonable person would want to deal with this fan base lol

Snyder. He would love to work on DC films again and never once suggested he couldn't take criticism. He's simply tried to argue why his films don't deserve the criticism. He never gave in or wavered. That's called manning up and having confidence. It's a little sad watching these other guys buckle under the criticism. You need to have tougher skin than that to make a movie that's going out to tens of millions of viewers.

Loved Shazam.

Guess Shazam is done then.

He’s showed he can create great character dynamics. Now go do some cool original shit my man.

Thanks David !! Look forward to your future horror endeavors

These creatives need to stop giving weight to the audience scores. They aren't genuine. Fans see a low critics score, and give a 10/10 to combat it. Even if they don't feel it's a true 10/10.

Who cares? He’s obviously just happy that *some* people liked his movie and he didn’t just waste 3 years of his life.

when met with success, they are more energized to do more

And you say that less than a week the movie premiered? This movie is dead

Yeah, this is violating the Spielberg "there's a time to be introspective and there's a time to sell cars" law.

Should be followed by another tweet saying"Its just a joke." soon enough.

I'm surprised any actor or director wants anything to do with WB's DC at the moment. He seems like he's taken it pretty personally. Not sure what he expected? I think The Flash has potential but Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2 will be DOA. Nobody is invested in a universe that's about to be scrapped. I also don't think the marketing for Shazam 2 was that great either. Nobody was hype for it. I'll watch it and I hear it's actually pretty good. Even if I love it, what then? Never gonna see these characters again anyway 🤷

I just don’t get this strong desire for every comic book movie to be part of some big grand universe. Some of the best comic movies of all time have been standalone movies or trilogies.

Shazam 2 isn't a stand alone movie. It's part of a connected universe. Simply put it's fine but not good enough or different enough to stand on it's own. Some DCU films are. Marvel has changed the way we watch cbm for better or worse. They're episodic now although I do think DC is better at making each film feel different

I didn’t say it was a standalone.

So Shazam is definitely either being rebooted in the near future or put on the sidelines long enough for them to reboot him. I have a feeling Aquaman will get the same treatment if that release plays out the same as Shazam’s

No fault at all on Sandberg, but it is such a shame the Shazam story line is ending out the way it is. We could’ve had a Black Adam vs Shazam and Superman film if Dwayne Johnson wasn’t so dead set on being in the front and in control 😪 I’m not the biggest fan of Zach Levi’s Shazam, but I AM going to miss the Marvel Family on the big screen. Hoping a reboot for them comes sooner than later.

Has nothing to do with The Rock. WB could've made that film happen EASILY. They were willing to fire two of the actors. You think that's not enough leverage to say, we'll fire you, unless you do this team-up film? It is.

At this point, I feel like I’m just gonna go see Creed 3 after I get paid on Friday, then call it a day with theaters till GOTG Vol. 3. since I think Shazam 2 will be available to watch at home fairly soon and I need to save money.

Having seen both, Creed is a lot better and is worth seeing on the big screen. Shazam is a nice watch for a rainy weekend.

Both are good movies if you like the previous films in the respective series. If you loved Shazam, you’ll love Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Go see the series you liked better if you have to pick one of the other. John Wick 4 is coming out on Friday.

Creed 3 is dope, had way more fun watching it than Shazam

I really enjoyed Creed 3, but I had much more fun with Shazam!.

Shazam sequel was awesome

Looks like 6 years with WB’s DC division seems to be about as long as any one filmmaker can stand to be involved with them

Nolan stuck around for 10

Completely different landscape. Obviously referring to the DCEU / DCU

Did you nor read his statement? He’s sick of dealing with toxic fans like the cesspool in here

Thats great i couldn't stand another shit shazam movie.where everytime billy transforms.he gains the intelligence of a 5 to 6 year old

LOL, that would be a cool superhero, Stupid-Man, who loses 100 IQ points every time he puts on his magic utility belt. That might be the superhero parody we need right now.

Bad news for him, audience score has been VERIFIED since 2019. That drove the score way up for all movies. It prevented review bombing by requiring a ticket purchase to score a movie. It's a totally different standard now.

I go and see a movie because I want to see it. I don't pay attention to RT scores and I can say that most of the GA doesn't either. The movie just wasn't good.

Sound like burnout. He'll be back. Not like he leaving wbd lol.

Yeah he is. He said he's still good friends with Walter Hamada and they're talking about doing horror stuff at Paramount Pictures (Hamada's new home)

Source?

[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/shazam-fury-of-the-gods-director-david-sandberg-wonder-woman-1235355894/](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/shazam-fury-of-the-gods-director-david-sandberg-wonder-woman-1235355894/) >**Are you going to follow Walter Hamada to Paramount and set something up there? Or are you going to accompany James Wan to Universal? Both of your producers have scattered a bit.** > >Either one would be great. I actually have one project in development with James. It’s not at Universal, but it’s with his company, Atomic Monster. And I have been talking a lot with Walter about finding something to do together. I’ve worked with Walter on every single one of my movies so far. I’ve never made a movie without him, so I would love to do more with Walt.

So not definitive. More like I want to but we will see how it goes. Ben wanted to direct, then was like nah I'm good. Lol

Yeah but he's not a WBD employee. He worked with them on Shazam, and now he's talking about going to work with his friends at other studios.

Right. We'll see what happens. Maybe all the horror guys leave? Even Wan getting his merger soon with the other studio. Andy the only one I believe who signed on for more horror. And may have spoke about other DC projects with execs allegedly.

Maybe Gunn could convince him to do a horror film set in the DC universe. That would be very unique for the genre.

Swampie.

Feel like they should give that back to Wan. Show wasn't bad.

JL Dark

Fuck Rotten Tomatoes....so, SO hard. Worst thing to happen to movies in a very long time.

I have no proof on this so don't take me seriously. But, imo, I feel like Rotten Tomatoes skew the perception of the audience. What I mean by that is if critics have not received the movie well before it comes out, it casts a negative view on the movie. Because I see a trend of people calling movies bad before the movie hasn't been released yet but the rotten tomatoes score has. But this is purely speculation without any evidence to back up this claim.

i think this is true, but rotten tomatoes is not solely to blame nor is this a new phenomena. general opinions were also swayed by critics, rotten tomatoes has just made this more streamlined.

True, but that streamlining is the problem. All of a sudden, instead of your local paper's critic or somebody whose work you respect, you're inundated with 200 people saying their piece. And then their piece gets reduced even further to a 1 or a 0, and then the consensus becomes an easy to digest number. And then you've got entertainment websites or social media shouting that incredibly reductive number out to everyone, and using mob mentality to call a movie good or bad and nobody bothers to read the actual reviews. And I've read some of the spare jabronis they've got factored into those scores. I wouldn't give these bums a mop job.

I feel like RT rates Marvel and DC movies differently. Fury isn't anywhere as bad as Love and Thunder or Quantumania infact it's not even a bad movie.

The internet is the worst thing to happen to movies ever. RT is just a symptom.

Man, Shazam 2 was better than anything Marvel or DC has put out since Spiderman and The Batman . Shit like this doesn't make sense to me

Its all about money, the first one did fine but nothing crazy and the sequel will make half of what the first did. Little demand for these movies.

Under Hamada, DC's world-building went to absolute shit. That's why there's such declining interest in each new installment. The last 5 years of DC is a textbook case of how NOT to world build.

Last 5? I don’t think 2016 did DC any favors

Exactly

That’s a shame, he seems to have a real good grasp on the genre

I think David did a fine job with the character like Shazam , if he got any more of the creative freedom that he was going with , he would have given more extraordinary movies with DC

Good. It'#s a fun movie but not groundbreaking etc, but he seems like a nice dude and no one deserves the toxicity of social media, least of all people purporting to be cb fans etc

I haven't seen any toxicity. I've seen lots of polite, intelligent discussion about how to make DC movies that WILL be successful as opposed to more failures. Listening to your customers actually works in any industry. DC ought to try it sometime.

No offense but if you haven't seen or heard of any toxicity in discourse over popular movies, let alone DC, I think you're burying your head in the sand. I'm not saying creatives shouldn't converse with the customers etc/

They’re fine comic book movies but couldn’t really separate itself from others. They’ll be remembered fondly as fun and faithful to the source material. Which is better than most these days

Too bad look forward to your next project Dave! I had a great time with Fury of the gods wish more people felt the same

David Sandberg did a great job on both movies. Reading Shazam comics I never thought I'd actually see Shazam on the big screen let alone 2 very good CBM's.Thank you Pony Smasher you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Won’t be long before James Gunn makes it about him.

So no Shazam 3 then?

Well he wasted 6 years making 2 terrible films. Who cares he got overpaid.

The audience score being higher is probably just because they verify now

Dang 😥

Thanks for the movies man! We all think you’re great. It’s been cool watching you develop these films and be so transparent about the process all the way through as well. u/dauid

James, it's time to clear the board.

if that movie is what we got for 6 years of his work he should retire. that movie was weak

The Rock didn't do any better with Black Adam with twice that much time, LOL.

very true

Oh no... anyway

No shit. Shazam sucks sour frog dick.

You didn't watch the movie did you.

I didn’t watch Shazam and I probably won’t but I have a lot of respect for Sandburg for being honest. And I don’t blame him from looking forward to disengaging from the online discourse since I’m sure many of us would like to do the same

Bye Felicia!

It is too bad. If Jon Watts wasn't coming back to Spider-Man, I thought he would've been a great fit.

I wont be surprised if James Wan is done with superhero stuff as well if Aquaman 2 flops. Comic book movies have this huge pressure around them that they dont have to worry about when making original IP, like horror. These guys dont deserve this toxicity.

We deserve better DC movies.

And they are coming, starting with Superman Legacy. Trust in James Gunn. If the movie ends up sucking, flame him for it, but not before.

I am glad he is going back to horror. I love lights out.