David F. Sandberg’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” tells the story of the three daughters of Atlas—Anthea, Hespera, and Kalypso—who want to take back the power of the Shazam family and restore the might of the Gods via the Wizard’s staff. So, they kidnap Freddy and encase the city of Philadelphia in a magic dome. That leaves Billy Batson with only one option: to give away his and the rest of the group’s powers, bring back Freddy and free his city. So, Billy calls for a truce and plans to not only rescue Freddy but also retrieve the staff and either kill the gods or banish them to the realm they came for. Billy’s plan doesn’t exactly work because, although he manages to imprison Hespera and starts orchestrating a way to use her to threaten Kalypso, Hespera breaks free. In fact, Hespera wanted to be caught so that she could get to the “seed” (a golden apple from the Tree of Life) that would replenish the Garden of Eden and bring back the gods’ glory days. Therefore, without the staff, the seed, and Freddy, the heroes found themselves in a pickle, and then things got worse.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Why Does Kalypso Unleash Hell in Philadelphia?
As far as I can remember, Atlas created a staff from the Tree of Life and used it to give magical powers to things and absorb magic from things like a battery. When the Wizard (or multiple wizards) found out about it, he stole it and went around de-powering gods such as Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Then, to level the playing field, the Wizard bestowed these powers on a champion or multiple champions. After that, they imprisoned the Gods in their realm, which disallowed them from entering the mortal realm. This barrier was evidently broken by Billy when he snapped the staff in half at the end of “Shazam!” Now, while Hespera and Anthea were ready to commit to the terms of their plan—which involved planting the seed, using the restored energy of the staff to repair their realm, and releasing Freddy and the Wizard from captivity—Kalypso wasn’t so interested in doing all that. She wanted the humans to suffer because she believed that they were the real villains in this whole situation, and they needed to be punished.
While the goddesses argued about this, Freddy made a valiant effort to steal the seed and make a run for the magical door that’d take him and the Wizard to the Shazam lair, from where they would plan their next steps. But he messed it up and called the goddesses’ attention to his actions. Thankfully, Billy got there in time to save Freddy and the Wizard, and he managed to get a hold of the seed. He would’ve had the staff as well. However, he made a cocky move, and Kalypso caught it while he was passing it to Freddy. That was reason enough for Kalypso to defy her sisters and go up to Philly and turn it into a hellscape. She planted the seed in the baseball stadium, knowing full well that the mixture of the earthly soil and the godly seed would give rise to all kinds of abominations. She managed to absorb everyone’s powers except for Billy’s. She stabbed Hespera through the chest with her dragon. She took away Anthea’s God status. And it didn’t look like she was in any mood to stop, even if Billy gave up his powers.
‘Shazam! Fury Of The Gods’ Ending Explained: Does Wonder Woman Revive Billy Batson?
During his time in the dome and while fighting with Kalypso, Billy observed two things. The first thing was that the dome acted as a reflective agent. As in, if he shot a bolt of electricity, it’d bounce around until it hit something. The second thing was that if he hit the staff in Kalypso’s hand with electricity, it’d just absorb it all without getting damaged or causing any harm to Kalypso. Based on that plan, he figured out that if he overpowered the staff and made it explode, it’d fry out everyone in its vicinity, including Kalpyso and the Tree of Life, thereby bringing her apocalyptic reign to an end and killing all the monsters she had unleashed. To make this work, Billy got hold of the staff. He ensured that Hespera was alive and on his side so that she could reduce the diameter and the height of the dome in the stadium, thereby limiting Kalypso’s movements. Then he started to bounce his bolts of lightning all around the dome and converged them into the staff. And while stabbing the dragon (with Kalypso on it) with the staff, he screamed “Shazam” so that it’d be charged to the max. This caused the explosion that he wanted and killed the dragon and Kalypso. Hespera went to the underworld. However, Billy died too. Anthea took him, his family, and the Wizard to the realm of the gods for burial.
That said, Billy’s death didn’t last too long as Wonder Woman showed up to recharge the staff with the electrical powers she had acquired during “Wonder Woman ’84.” That started the healing process of the realm and resurrected Billy as well. Since Billy was such a big fan of Wonder Woman, he tried to woo her almost instantly. Wonder Woman advised him to focus on his superhero work and exited the scene. The concluding moments of the film hinted that the Wizard had allowed Billy to restore everyone’s powers and given new ones to Marta and Cooper as well because they did raise their hands when they were talking about getting Shazam’s powers. We also saw that the Shazamily household, which was destroyed by the mean dragon, was getting repaired. Anthea said that she wasn’t in the mood to go to her realm because it was still healing, thereby drawing a parallel between the two families and their respective homes. She wanted to spend more time with Freddy—thereby confirming that they were a couple now—and learn about humans. The Wizard paid them a visit to take his staff and transfer the moniker “Shazam” from himself to Billy. I have a theory here. Going by his attire, he looked a lot like Papa Midnite, i.e., a character that Djimon Hounsou played in “Constantine.” Since Keanu Reeves is apparently returning as John Constantine, I think they’re going to retcon the lore of the DCU by merging the Wizard and Papa Midnite into one character. I won’t be complaining at all because I love these characters, and I love Hounsou.
Mid-Credit Explained: Is Billy Part Of The Justice Society?
The mid-credits featured Emilia Harcourt and John Economos walking to an undisclosed location to meet Billy Batson/Shazam. Why? Well, they wanted him to join the Justice Society. Billy appeared disappointed because he thought he was being called in to join the Justice League, thereby allowing him to be closer to Wonder Woman. But no, it was the Justice Society for him or nothing. It wasn’t clear if Shazam agreed to join the Justice Society, but there’s a possibility that he will because what other option does he have? He needs to branch out and save places other than Philadelphia. And if you are wondering why Harcourt and Economos, under Amanda Waller’s orders, are recruiting for the Justice Society and not the Suicide Squad, you have to watch “Black Adam.” Because that movie pretty much confirmed that Waller was in charge of the Suicide Squad and the Justice Society of America. That team already has Hawkman, Atom Smasher, Cyclone, and possibly Black Adam. I don’t know if this is going to pan out in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU. However, it doesn’t hurt to dream, does it?
Post-Credit Explained: Do Dr. Sivana and Mister Mind Pose Any Real Danger to Billy?
Much like the mid-credits scene from “Shazam!,” the post-credits scene of the sequel featured Mister Mind, the telepathic caterpillar, talking about some vague plans to return to power with a bearded and imprisoned Doctor Sivana, but that they needed more time. And that was it. Again, and at the cost of sounding repetitive, the future of the DCU is really unstable. I mean, we got Henry Cavill in the Superman suit, and a few days later, we learned that that was his final appearance as the character and that he’s out. So, the notion that Sivana and Mind are probably talking about forming the Monster Society of Evil to take on Shazam, the Justice League, and maybe the Justice Society of America has a big, fat question mark drawn all over it. Until and unless James Gunn takes to his Twitter account and confirms that there’s a third “Shazam!” movie in the works with these two characters as its villains or there’s a Monster Society of Evil spin-off series or movie in the works, none of these teases mean anything. At this point, we can just pray for someone over at DC and WB to love Mark Strong’s hammy performance as much as we do and give him another chance to play Sivana.
