Shazam 2: How The Gods Make Wonder Woman's Movies Even More Confusing
Contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods
As the bell rings out for the final few chapters of this version of the DCEU, creative choices that might've seemed reasonable prior to the new Gunn-vermental restructure now just feel like shoehorned moments we could do without. In the case of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," it's an iffy cameo fans aren't too impressed with that was already revealed in the trailers. Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman returns, having not been seen since she had her ex-boyfriend (Chris Pine) inhabit the body of a total stranger and just carried on guilt-free about the whole thing.
After Billy Batson (Asher Angel) sacrifices himself and kills the power-mad Kalypso (Lucy Liu), the Vásquez household is heartbroken over the loss of their heroic family member. Burying him in the other realm of the gods in an unmarked grave (lazy), the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) explains that all the magic from the staff has been spent and that only a god could bring Billy back. Lucky for these guys, then, that Gal Gadot's Themsycarian princess is passing through, lending a hand to recharge the staff and thus bringing Billy back to life. Now, while the assist is very much appreciated, in the grand scheme of things, the small and absolutely unnecessary appearance of Diana Prince actually causes more problems than it solves. By cementing the link between Shazam (Zachary Levi) and the rest of this DC Universe, it actually leads to rules established here that have already been broken in other films already.
Fury of the Gods puts up plot barriers that Wonder Woman already broke down
Early on in the film, it's revealed that the arrival of Kalypso and her sisters Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) was thanks to Billy in the last film. After snapping the Wizard's staff, the wall between their realm and ours came down, breaking a barrier that had kept gods out of humanity's business and now allowing them to cross over, wreak havoc and cause a spot of bother for our heroes. For those who know their DCEU antagonists, however, previous events from Wonder Woman's side of the story specifically should argue that this shouldn't be the case.
In "Wonder Woman" from 2017, it's eventually revealed that World War I has been spurred on by none other than the god of war, Hades (David Thewlis), who has been hanging around on Earth for centuries. If that's the case, surely that would suggest that the barrier wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and the likes of Hades, or indeed Zeus and Atlas (two gods Shazam's powers come from) shouldn't have had any trouble in making their way back to our world. The issues don't end there either, because not only does Wonder Woman's appearance mess up the story's already established rules, but it also has us scratching our chins about how she made her way into the scene in the first place — or the rest of the characters, for that matter.
As one door closes, another door opens ... somehow
While Freddy and co. are all understandably upset about the death of Billy, their loss of magic should have caused far more issues than bringing back their deceased friend. Specifically, they should have had trouble getting to the spot where they end up burying him. It could be argued that they made it back to the realm of the gods through the door to the labyrinth Freddy and the Wizard fled from earlier, but that door can only be found in the Shazam fam's lair, which, if they're all out of magic, they wouldn't be able to get to in the first place.
It doesn't stop there, either. Even if they made it through that door, how in the underworld did Wonder Woman follow them there? Flying across realms? Invisible jet? Uber?
We get that the age-old rule of comic book films is to leave your brain at the door, but when it's part of a franchise that has applied such stringent rules to its world, it's hard not to ignore glaring issues like this. Particularly now, given the confusing shifts at DC Entertainment and the uncertainty of which films are supposed to be in which universe and continuity, the cameo gives us far more questions than answers. We can only hope that when the rebirth of DC kicks into gear with the "Gods and Monsters" chapter, its laws of Justice Leagues and legendary heroes are nailed down much better than the DCEU's.