Warner Bros. and DC decided to delay a few of their anticipated movies due to the COVID-19 uncertainty. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the next film to join the fate of several 2020 and 2021 films. The U.S. just hasn’t been able to sufficiently slow down the spread of the coronavirus and the domestic box office has suffered from it.
There were a few attempts to premiere big budget films last month, but their opening weekends didn’t perform well as people are still not comfortable sitting indoors with other people. According to Variety, Regal Cinemas would be closing all their theaters after MGM decided to delay James Bond’s No Time To Die.
Shazam! being a big hit with audiences and critics in 2019, Warner Bros. decided on a sequel even if it wasn’t as big of a box office hit like Batman v Superman and Wonder Woman. There isn’t a lot of information about the Shazam! sequel. There wasn’t even an original release date.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now a summer 2023 film,” director David F. Sandberg tweeted, adding the joke, “WB was like ‘can’t you just use fake beards on the kids?’ and I was like ‘If Tom Cruise is going to space for real then we can wait for the kids to grow real beards! It’s an important plot point.”
The Shazam! spinoff, Black Adam with Dwayne Johnson, is also another film being delayed due to coronavirus uncertainties. In fact, according to Comicbook.com, Warner Bros. and DC took Black Adam completely off their movie release schedule for now.