SHAZAM! Director on why he’s not disappointed There was no BLACK ADAM crossover, but he says it was a ‘missed opportunity’

The fact that Shazam! AND Black Adam they weren’t brought together in a single franchise which was a silly decision given the two characters have a long history together in the comics. Black Adam is a regular enemy of Shazam! and seeing them cross paths on the big screen makes all the sense in the world.

The original plan was to have the two appear in the Shazam! movie, but Dwayne Johnson shutting it down because he wanted Black Adam to have his own standalone film, which was a big mistake, as that film ended up being mediocre at best. It was a huge disappointment and a useless film. It’s like making a Venom movie without Spider-Man involved.

I think the two characters would have been stronger together in a movie, but Johnson wanted to change the hierarchy of the DC Cinematic Universe with Black Adam, alone. Obviously, it didn’t work out as well as he’d hoped. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director David F. Sandberg he’s been asked if he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to explore Black Adam and Shazam’s relationship, and while he explains that he isn’t, he also understands that it was a missed opportunity. He said:

“No, not really. The beauty of Black Adam is that he has the same powers as Shazam, and we did that in the first film where we gave Sivana [Mark Strong] the same power. So I don’t think the combat itself would have been very interesting, but I think it’s a missed opportunity. What makes the most sense is to have them fight each other, so that’s the money left on the table. But it is so”.

Yep, that’s definitely money left on the table! I have no doubt that if the story of Shazam and Black Adam had been built over the course of two or three films, this would have been a far stranger and more successful franchise than it has become.