Sandberg Confirms Original Plan To Include Henry Cavill’s Superman In SHAZAM!

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Shazam!: The Movie

The film itself wins because it keeps the focus where it should be: On our hero and his family!

It’s wonderful to see all of the easter eggs, but for a film universe that plans to tell stories that stand on their own and aren’t as interconnected, it’s important to make sure these movies are complete experiences that don’t distract you with nods to other stuff.

So we all got a Shazam! movie set in a world where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the crew clearly all exist, but we didn’t run the risk of having any of those titans overshadow our titular hero.

You want people leaving the theater buzzing about Shazam, not Superman.

The Studio

Warner Bros. likely sees this all as a tremendous victory because they just scored their second straight win in terms of crowd response, critics’ reviews, and box office receipts…and they did so while telling a very self-contained story about an appealing lead character.

Their formula is starting to work.

And by not moving mountains to get Cavill in Shazam! it gives them more leverage in the event that they do decide to bring him back down the line. Had they signed him last year, when his team was aggressively pursuing a new deal with some added input for the actor, they likely would’ve over-paid for him. He was about to appear in Mission: Impossible- Fallout and his team was pushing him as a star on the rise. He wouldn’t have been cheap.

But now, he’s off making The Witcher and, until that comes out, his public profile is pretty quiet. He didn’t become some breakout star with Mission: Impossible- Fallout either. The studio can now patiently sit back, see how The Witcher goes, and make a responsible business decision about whether or not to stay in the Henry Cavill business.

They wouldn’t have been able to do any of this had they hastily gotten a new deal done and continued to establish him as the official Superman of the Worlds of DC by having him appear in Shazam!

Henry Cavill

Yes, even Henry wins here.

Because even despite the fact that he wasn’t used for Shazam!, his version of Superman was referenced a lot. From dolls that bore his likeness, to newspaper headlines and clippings that clearly reference his Superman’s cinematic arc, to a faceless cameo that includes the very distinct look of his Superman, it means that his Kal-El is still alive in the public eye (if the studio eventually decides they want him to be).

Had they shot a cameo with a different actor’s face being shown, or in a costume that bore no resemblance to the Justice League suit, or even if they had opted to not bring in Superman at all, then his hopes of ever being invited back to the negotiation table would’ve been killed off.

That would’ve been Kryptonite for his Man of Steel.

Instead, people are talking about his Superman today as they celebrate the success of Shazam!

Everybody wins.

And, finally, in terms of gossip (or as I like to call it bochinche)…

I think there’s more to the story than Sandberg can realistically be expected to share. Because I believed ComicBook.com when they said that Cavill did manage to shoot something for Shazam! I don’t know exactly what scene was shot, as this cafeteria scene was one of three rumored to include Cavill.

There was the one we got, but with dialogue, that never got shot. There was one I heard about that would’ve featured Superman doing something cool on a TV that Billy and Freddy are watching. And there was one that was more of a one-on-one mentor scene between Supes and Billy.

Those are all just rumors, mind you, but I trust what was reported, and I totally get why Sandberg wouldn’t want to reveal exactly how complicated things got while trying to figure out where to fit Superman into Shazam! Much easier (and much smarter) to leave it at “scheduling conflicts.”

But anyway, now let’s open it up to you, fandom.

What did you think of the headless Superman cameo at the end of Shazam!? Did it work for you? Do you see what I mean about why it’s actually all a big win? Am I crazy? Let me know!

SOURCE: Inverse / Revenge of The Fans

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