This superhero sequel has more cameos than you can shake a magic staff at, and a possible
future for Shazam in James Gunn's DCU.
This is the ending of "Shazam!
Fury of the Gods" explained.
One secret revealed early in "Shazam: Fury of the Gods" is that Rachel Ziegler's Anthea
is not in fact a cute, harmless teenage girl interested in the affections of Freddy Freeman,
but is, in fact, the third daughter of Atlas.
While Kalypso works alongside her sisters for much of "Fury of the Gods," she goes on
her own to pursue the golden apple after it's stolen by Freddy, eager to set their plans
of revenge in motion.
"The daughters of Atlas are coming to hunt us."
When Mary Marvel attempts to fly away with it, Kalypso chases after her on a dragon and
eventually drains Mary of her power mid-air.
Billy is forced to choose between grabbing the apple or saving Mary as both tumble toward
the ground.
He wisely chooses Mary.
But this leads to Kalypso snagging the apple for herself.
After obtaining it she plants it at Citizens Bank Park, where the Philadelphia Phillies
play.
The apple gives rise to the Tree of Life, which subsequently sprouts, spreads its roots
far and wide, and bears some awful fruit.
Small cocoons begin giving birth to various mythological creatures, from cyclopses and
minotaurs to harpies and manticores.
They soon begin roaming the streets and attacking citizens.
Kalypso's revenge plans swing into full force.
After Kalypso plants the apple and the Tree unleashes chaos, Anthea and Hespera start
to have second thoughts regarding their revenge plans.
The sisters' only goal was to rebuild the Realm of the Gods, which was diminished when
the Wizard stripped its occupants of their powers.
But seeing the Tree of Life ravaging Earth causes them to plead with Kalypso to stop
her plot.
Kalypso isn't interested in bargaining, though, and sees her sisters as disposable.
As Hespera and Anthea confront their sister, Kalypso's dragon stabs Hespera in the back.
With Hespera on the ground dying, Kalypso points the staff at Anthea, ready to drain
her of her powers.
But before Kalypso unleashes its wrath, she taunts Anthea, declaring that it's a worthy
fate, given her love of humanity.
Anthea tries in vain to stop the attack, but fails and succumbs to the staff's power.
With Hespera and Anthea out of the way, Kalypso stands alone.
The daughters of Atlas are decimated by betrayal, and one villain remains.
It's a dark day in Philadelphia with most of the Marvel family stripped of their powers
and monsters wreaking havoc in the streets.
Only Billy Batson is left to save the world.
By this point, Kalypso has proven her power and has Billy running scared.
Batson returns to the Wizard and begs the ancient being to take his powers back.
In this bleak moment, Billy feels like he was the wrong choice to be the Wizard's champion,
and he can't bear the responsibilities that the powers of Shazam give him.
"I can't do this.
Take my powers back.
You gave them to me so you can take them back, right?"
But the Wizard tells Billy that his choice was no accident.
He knows that the young man's heart is pure, and although he has made mistakes, he is the
Champion.
When Billy gave powers to his family to turn them into super-powered warriors, he proved
that anyone can be a hero given the opportunity.
It gives Billy the strength to form a plan to take back the staff and end Kalypso's reign
of terror.
It even inspires the rest of his family to take action, even without their powers.
Philadelphia is completely overrun with mythical monsters by the time Billy's siblings arrive,
but without their powers, it doesn't seem like there's much they can do.
However, the group asks their sentient pen "Steve" how to stop the monsters, and he points
them in the direction of the "King of the Beasts."
What they discover is that the so-called "king" is a unicorn, which makes Darla absolutely
giddy.
The family then attempts to find unicorns in a dark cavern.
However, they aren't brightly colored magical creatures bursting with happiness and rainbows.
Instead, they're dark, angry beasts that resemble horned horses from hell.
As they try to figure out what to do with the unicorns, one of them starts to charge
toward Darla.
Before it can attack, though, she's able to calm the creature with everyone's favorite
taste of the rainbow, Skittles.
"Good girl."
The sweet candies act as a modern Ambrosia, the sweet nectar of the gods.
With the unicorn on their side, it calls in reinforcements and Billy's siblings are soon
riding through town on the backs of mythical creatures, killing monsters along the way.
While most of Billy's siblings hunt for unicorns, Freddy sees Anthea walking through a massive
crowd and decides to follow her.
Freddy catches up to the god just as Kalypso and her dragon begin terrorizing civilians.
During the attack, Kalypso spots Anthea in the crowd and attempts to kill her.
Anthea is almost defeated, but Freddy manages to comfort her and provide her with some much
needed confidence.
Despite the morale boost, things look grim.
Right at their moment of defeat, Billy arrives, thwarts Kalypso's attack, and steals back
the staff.
The retrieval of the powerful weapon is the beginning of the end for Kalypso.
With staff in hand, Billy notices that it has begun to accumulate massive amounts of
energy.
He realizes that he can use the energy as a bomb which could potentially destroy the
Tree and Kalypso's dragon in one blast.
All he has to do is lure the evil god and her pet back to the stadium.
However, before he unleashes the power of the staff, he has to protect the innocent
civilians who could be killed in the explosion.
So he calls on the help of the dying Hespera.
He begs her to use her powers to shrink the magical dome that has trapped him for so long
down to a smaller size so it covers only the stadium.
Trapped inside the dome, Billy knows that he might not survive when he unleashes the
energy from the staff, but at least his family and everyone he loves will be safe.
"Now go fight for your family.
Go fight for the world."
Everything is in place for Shazam's final battle.
Before he takes the fight back to Kalypso, he says goodbye to his family, knowing that
he likely won't survive.
His final conversation with Freddy proves why he was the perfect choice to be the Champion.
Though he's afraid, Billy is willing to make his ultimate sacrifice because he knows it's
the right thing to do.
He then puts his own spin on the "All or None" mentality that has been always been a part
of his family's heroics.
It's a moment that bonds Freddy and Billy together forever and proves that the young
man is a true hero.
"Okay, I feel like maybe I should be writing this down."
With little time to spare, Billy flies into the stadium to destroy Kalypso once and for
all, but this foe is more powerful than anything he's faced before.
And this time Billy is all alone.
But with his courage and confidence returned, he knows he has the power to save the world.
He even has time for one last superhero entrance.
He emerges from a tunnel into the stadium with a display fit for a rock star.
It's the perfect moment to begin the final confrontation.
As Billy enters the stadium for his final showdown with Kalypso he charges the dome
with lightning.
The visual is a callback to the Tesla Lamp that exploded in his room earlier in the movie,
which is likely the inspiration for his final attack.
In the charged dome, Shazam and Kalypso brawl.
The battle is fierce and thrilling, and eventually, Billy detonates the staff.
The explosion kills the Tree, Kalypso, her dragon, and himself.
Billy makes the ultimate sacrifice to save his family.
With Kalypso defeated, the dome dissipates, and his family rushes in to save him.
But Billy's wounds are too severe.
Freddy, in particular, is overwhelmed with emotion.
The Wizard is so moved by Billy's sacrifice that he declares that his Champion is to be
buried as a god.
With Anthea's help, Billy's family is transported to the afterlife realm, and there the young
hero receives a proper burial.
Billy's tear-inducing funeral boasts a Shazam lightning bolt etched in the dirt on his gravesite,
a somber family, and a sense of finality.
It also doesn't last for long.
The Wizard is asked about the staff's power and if it could be restored.
He says that only the spark of a God could restore the staff's power — and that's when
some unexpected help arrives.
While the Wonder Woman cameo had been spoiled by recent trailers, it doesn't make her appearance
any less epic.
Diana uses her power to resurrect Billy, who springs out of the ground like a zombie.
Everyone hugs him moments later, but just as importantly, he gets to talk to Wonder
Woman — who he has been crushing on throughout the film.
Billy had dreams of them on dates in Paris, and now he gets to take his shot at asking
her out.
It goes about as well as you'd expect.
"Stick to saving the world, kid."
It's fulfilling to see Shazam finally interact with other DC heroes in a meaningful way,
and it's always a treat to see Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman on the big screen.
Now that the staff is fixed, everyone gets their powers back and is able to be a crime-fighting
family again.
Their next task is to help rebuild the family home that got destroyed when Kalypso's dragon
entered their world.
Once their home is rebuilt, they can continue saving the world together.
But, they have a surprise visitor one night as they're eating dinner.
It's The Wizard — in essence, Djimon Hounsou now looking like his dapper self.
Sporting a handsome, modern look, he tells the family that he's there to take the staff
and is going to start exploring the modern human world he's ignored for so long.
Before he leaves, though, Billy asks him one important question — what is his superhero
name?
This has been a running joke/dilemma for Billy throughout the film, and at one point, 1970s
Billy Batson actor Michael Gray even calls him by the character's former name, Captain
Marvel.
However, The Wizard has a more fitting name for Billy: Shazam!
Freddy still insists they could still come up with something better.
The first post-credits scene has Emilia Harcourt and John Economos — two members of Amanda
Waller's team, last seen in the "Peacemaker" TV series — walking through the woods, delivering
some funny banter to each other and saying that they have come on Waller's behalf.
Turns out, Shazam is being recruited for the Justice Society.
It seems like the DCEU isn't ready to let Shazam be a part of the Justice League quite
yet, but it's still an upgrade, nevertheless.
Billy is a little confused about it at first, but then suggests some fun alternative names
for the JSA.
Of course, it's tough to say where this plot thread is going — if anywhere — since
James Gunn's re-envisioning of the DC universe is still being rolled out.
The fact that characters created by Gunn are involved in this scene, however, suggests
that all involved will be heard from again.
The second post-credits scene is more a comical rehashing of the post-credits scene from the
first film than anything that feels like a significant breadcrumb.
But it is fun to once again see Mister Mind, one of the more eccentric villains in the
DC realm.
In 2019, the conclusion of "Shazam!"
seemingly indicated that Mister Mind and Dr. Sivana were hatching a plan that would likely
form the crux of the sequel.
Since neither are found in "Fury of the Gods," the obvious question is: Why?
This time, Sivana is still rotting in jail.
Once again, Mister Mind shows up, telling him the master plan is nearly complete.
Sivana grows angry, saying he's getting older; Mister Mind responds that he can't do things
very fast — after all, he is a caterpillar.
All he can do is just slither from place to place.
Instead of Mister Mind giving any sort of glimpse into what he's planning, he tells
Sivana he has one more thing to do, then slithers away again.
Is this just a pointless catch-up scene with Mister Mind and Sivana?
Or kicking the can down another couple years until it finally pays it off?
If this thread continues in the new DCU, perhaps it could serve up a plot for a potential third
Shazam movie or even a Mister Mind role as the big baddie of the "Gods and Monsters"
chapter.
After all, he does run the Monster Society of Evil in the comics.
It's unclear what's next for Shazam, with the DC Extended Universe potentially being
reset in the upcoming "Flash" movie.
"Fury of the Gods" presents some potential storylines for Shazam's future with his family's
powers being back, Billy being recruited for the JSA, and Mister Mind still being out there.
But, it's unclear where Shazam fits into James Gunn's plan — if he does at all.
While it would be disappointing to see Zachary Levi and Asher Angel replaced after delivering
two fun films that have made the character a hit with wider audiences, both are getting
older.
It's tough to tell what's really in Shazam's future at the moment.
It's no shock that sequel plans aren't confirmed yet, because the DC films are in such a period
of transition, but perhaps some solid box-office could make the case for more.
As with any good superhero story, there's always a chance the hero could rise again.