I’ll admit, I wondered how much of a spoiler warning to put at the top of this article, given the huge cameo in Shazam! Fury of the Gods was given away a week before the film opened by Warner Bros. themselves in widely seen commercials for the film. Still, even with that cat out of the bag for those who saw the ads or heard about them, the fact that Wonder Woman appears in the movie is a big deal.
After all, Wonder Woman is one of the most famous DC Comics heroes – or from comic books in general, really. Gal Gadot once more dons the Wonder Woman costume, making her first appearance since Wonder Woman 1984, even as questions swirl about a potential cameo in The Flash and then if we’ll ever see her as the character beyond that, given it’s unclear how much of the current DCEU will be retained once we get the new films and TV series produced for the updated DCU that is being planned by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Superman and Batman will be played by new actors, but could Wonder Woman still look the same given it seems like Aquaman will, given his film opens after The Flash’s in-univese reset?
We shall see! In the meantime though, we have Wonder Woman’s appearance in Fury of the Gods, something the cast and filmakers were quite excited about, especially after the fifrst Shazam! film had an intended cameo from Henry Cavill as Superman fall through and turn into a gag where you never see Superman’s face.
NEEDED: ONE GOD
Director David F. Sandberg revealed that the plan to include Wonder Woman in Fury of the Gods did not come about late in the process, noting, “Right from the start, she was in the script.” That said, he admitted, “I didn’t really believe that it was gonna happen. Because on the first movie, we were supposed to have Superman show up at the end. And then when we shot it, it was like, ‘Okay, well, [Henry Cavill’s] not going to be able to get here so we’re gonna have to shoot it with a stand in and then we’ll pick up the pieces we need.’ And then that never happened so we had to make do with the stand in footage, which turned out kind of fun. But for this one, it felt like we can’t get away with another headless cameo. It has to be real.”
However, Sandberg then feared history was repeating itself, “Because when we were shooting most of that scene, we did it with a stand in because she wasn’t available to do it at the time. So it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re never gonna get her.’”
As Fury of the Gods’ co-screenwriter, Chris Morgan, noted, the idea of having Wonder Woman appear felt natural because “She’s one of the last Gods out there, so it’s very relevant that she’s there at that point of the movie.” Indeed, in the film, Wonder Woman literally saves Shazam’s life, bringing Billy Batson and his alter ego back from the dead by way of being the daughter of Zeus – the same Zeus who provides the Z in Shazam’s name and is part of the source of his powers. Wonder Woman is able to restore both those powers and Billy’s life along with them in one fell swoop.
Sandberg said that while they were waiting to hear if and when Gadot would shoot the scene, “I started thinking about Plan B.” Earlier in the film, Helen Mirren’s god, Hespera – one of the daughters of Atlas – perishes, but Sandberg said he pondered, ‘Can we bring Hespera back? We need some sort of God!’ But then [Gadot] actually did it, which I was very happy about.” He added, with a grin, “It’s good that we are able to show her at the end so we don’t piss people off.”
SHE’S A WONDER
Wonder Woman is one of those rare comic book characters whose mainstream fame, simply as a pop culture touchstone, goes far beyond those who read comic books or even the many who go to comic book movies. A ton of people have some sense of who the character is, even if they’ve never actually seen one of her stories told.
As far as including a character that notable in their film, Zachary Levi (“Shazam”) said he was thrilled, remarking, “You know, we got a little taste of it in the first one but ended up having a headless Supes, which was what it was, but to bring a bonafide other superhero, a Justice Leaguer, into the mix, and that Gal was down to do it… As a fan of comics myself, who wants to make movies that are delighting other comic book fans, DC fans, I love that. I love that we were able to give that because that’s stuff that we our minds get blown for.”
Most of the cast learned about the plan for the cameo from the script, with Grace Caroline Currey (“Mary Bromfield / Super Hero Mary”) saying, “Oh my gosh, I remember when I read it in the script and I was like, ‘Wait a second. Wait, no… Wait, what? We are??’ It was really exciting.”
D.J. Cotrona (“Super Hero Pedro”) referred to Wonder Woman as “The definition of iconic. It’s interesting, because we obviously are connected to and touch on the Greek gods in our property. And DC, and Comic books in general, are our new Greek gods in a way that we use in entertainment and as reference and DC has this pantheon of gods. You have Superman, you have Wonder Woman, and everybody that kind of branches off. So to have one of the greatest icons in all of comic book history come at such a pivotal point for our story and to interact with all of our characters and get us out of a tough situation was very, very cool.”
There have been some online rumors that Wonder Woman was going to have a larger role in Fury of the Gods at one point, but Sandberg said that was incorrect, explaining, “It was always just a cameo at the end. I don’t know where all sorts of rumors come from because it was always going to be a Shazam! movie first and foremost. And I think she would have stolen a lot of the thunder, so to speak, if she had been a part of the whole movie.”
WONDER HONSOU
Gal Gadot’s cameo is the payoff to an earlier scene in the movie in which Billy dreams he’s on a date with Wonder Woman, which delivers two big sources of comedy. The first is that as Billy speaks to her, Wonder Woman’s face is never shown, nor does she speak, in a clear nod to the “Headless Supes” from the first movie, making it seem like this will now be an ongoing bit through the Shazam! films, rather then ever actually having a big guest appearance. As Sandberg put it, he felt them actually having Gadot appear in the film’s conclusion, “Enabled ourselves to poke fun at the first movie and the headless cameo a little bit.”
Beyond that in-joke, things get to a far more surreal place when the Wizard, needing to contact Billy, hijacks his dream and appears as the head on Wonder Woman’s body – giving us the unexpected visual of Djimon Honsou with the body and costume of Wonder Woman.
Many of the cast agreed this was a standout scene for them, with Cotrona recalling,. “Somebody showed me a monitor clip when they were shooting that on the day, just like a two second clip, and I was just laughing because it’s so funny, visually.” He added that he loved how, “The scene just goes on and on and he’s giving this very serious exposition…”
Said Currey, “It’s one of my favorite scenes. When I read the script I was like, ‘This is hilarious. I am so glad we’re going here.’”
While Honsou didn’t don the full Wonder Woman costume to film his portion, he did need to have her flowing locks and Ross Butler (“Super Hero Eugene”) smiled, recalling, “I remember seeing him on set that day and I could not [believe it]. He comes out of this black SUV that took him to set and he’s just sweeping his hair back. We’re like, ‘Djimon!?’”
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing.
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