Sandberg told us that the planning for a sequel began right after the first film’s release. It took some time because they were looking more at the New 52 version of the characters, which they used for the first film (excluding Black Adam, he noted). Sandberg explained the problem with using those stories as inspiration for the sequel. He said:Â
“They went so much into fantasy world, where they went into different doors and different realms and everything like that. But what made the first ‘Shazam!’ work, I think, is that it is in sort of like a grounded world, where you have something fantastic happening in a grounded world. If it’s fantastic happening in a fantastic world, it’s not the same. That’s when we started thinking, ‘What can we do that’s different?’ and we started talking about mythology, because of his powers coming from gods and everything.”
Despite the fact that there is some venturing into other realms here, the bulk of it takes place in our world. It allows us to really spend time with the characters, see how they’ve grown since we saw them last, and look at what’s really going on with them in terms of interpersonal relationships. The thing about these films is that there are a whole lot of characters, and you don’t want to make it so each kid has a single line. With all the kids, their step-parents, their alter egos, a wizard, and three goddesses, there really isn’t time to add Mister Mind in unless you do it in a brief way.Â
