As fans of the original Shazam! saw first-hand, sometimes, a continuity change will happen between the first movie in a franchise and a sequel, and it will never be addressed onscreen.
In the DCU Shazam! movies, this was most obviously evident with Grace Caroline Currey, who played the de-powered Mary Bromfield in the first film, but not the Shazam-ified, super-powered version (that role went to Michelle Borth).
However, in the sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Currey took on both roles, which though slight, did lead to a continuity error.
When Shazam! Fury of the Gods flashes back to a moment from the first movie, Currey is seen playing Shazam-Mary, despite her not playing the role when the scene was originally shot.
Now, this discontinuity — along with other ones like suit designs and action pieces — has been addressed by the franchise’s director, David F. Sandberg, on Twitter.
What Changed in Shazam 2’s Flashback?
Shazam! and Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg shared a side-by-side comparison of a scene from the former and a recreation of that scene in the latter on his Twitter Friday.
The most noticeable change is the earlier clip showing Michelle Borth as a grown-up Mary Bromfield, while the newer one has Grace Caroline Currey playing both the de-powered and powered-up versions of the character.
The biggest of the other, smaller changes, originally intended to be chalked up to time shenanigans from The Flash film prior to it being pushed to release after the Shazam! sequel, are the suits being dimmer and less flashy in the 2023 version.
In fact, Sandberg revealed that the entire reason for the full reshoot, rather than just replacing Borth with Currey but leaving the rest as is, was “because of the suits.”
Other small changes include “slightly different timing” with the staff breaking, Shazam‘s cape design being altered, and Freddy not flying at the scene’s start, due to it being “such an ordeal with the rigging and everything:”
@ponysmasher: “I was going to have him fly at first but it’s such an ordeal with the rigging and everything (which eats up shooting time needed for other scenes) and since it’s such a quick moment we decided to skip it.”
Does This Mean More in the DCU Can Change?
With the seeming nonchalant acceptance of these changes from fans, and the similar attitude appearing to come from Sandberg himself, there is a door now open to other minor continuity changes not being explained as the DCU continues.
Granted, The Flash film will likely end up resetting a fair amount of what DC movies have already established. This includes those smaller details like the suit design changes, as originally intended for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
DC Comics has a history of slight re-writing and retconning, from little things like Dick Grayson wearing pants as Robin in the current run of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest by Mark Waid and Dan Mora, to larger changes like Wally West’s wife and kids ceasing to exist after certain reboots.
All this to say that at this point, with The Flash on the horizon and a precedent set by the flashback being slightly different than the original scene, anything is fair game to change as the DC Universe moves forward cinematically.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters.
