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Shazam Probably Won't Feature A Superman Cameo
Superman's planned Shazam! cameo may not be happening after all. Warner Bros. is tipped to introduce a brand new superhero on the big screen with David F. Sandberg's upcoming film starring Zachary Levi as the titular character and Asher Angel as his human alter-ego, Billy Batson. Not much is known regarding specific story details about it, but judging on the film's first trailer, it'll be significantly more light-hearted than previous installments in the DCEU.
While the plot for Shazam! is being kept tightly under wraps, there's one thing that fans are looking forward to in the movie: an alleged appearance from Henry Cavill's Superman. Over the last few months, rumors continued to swirl that the 35-year-old was slated to have a cameo in the forthcoming movie as the Man of Steel. However, the latest on the matter suggests that this might not be the case.
Mark Hughes from Superhero News recently provided an update with regard to the much-clamored Man of Steel 2. Sadly, it doesn't seem like a sequel to the 2013 film that kicked off the DCEU will be coming any soon. In fact, it doesn't seem like Cavill's Superman will be back on the screen for a while since Hughes also shared that based on his latest intel, plans for his cameo in Shazam! fell through:
"Superman, I can tell you as of three to four weeks ago, last time I checked in, there is not movement on Superman. It's not currently sitting on the table as a project that they're looking at moving forward on and there's no expectation of imminent movement on a Superman project... that's the situation."
"I know for now it didn't work out getting Superman into Shazam!, apparently. Maybe that will change and they'll be able to film something. There's still a lot of time before it comes out. As of right now, there's no Superman in Shazam! and there's no movement on a Superman solo movie. All this stuff is going to wait until they know for sure."
While there might not be a Superman appearance in Shazam! as Hughes claimed, that doesn't mean that the film will be any less connected to the DCEU. The trailer, as well as other promotional materials for the Levi-starrer, confirmed that the movie indeed exists in the established continuity with countless fun nods to both Superman and Batman among others. Perhaps, this way of tying the films together is a better approach than shoehorning cameos from other superheroes that didn't really need to be there. Sure, fans may be disappointed not seeing Shazam and Superman interact in the flick, but since WB is continuing to build the franchise, it's only a matter of time before they meet on the big screen, especially since there's a good chance that the former will eventually join the Justice League.
Looking at the upcoming DC live-action movies, it appears like Warner Bros. is really focusing on standalone movies than building towards crossover events. Aquaman and Wonder Woman 1984 are already both self-contained narratives considering that the former will mostly take place in Atlantis, while the latter is a period piece. Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, on the other hand, was already confirmed to be DCEU-separate. Shazam!, however, takes place in a modern-day setting, which means that it needs to somehow acknowledge the bigger DCEU events that recently happened in relation to superheroes' existence on Earth, otherwise, it'll suffer from continuity issues. Fortunately, Sandberg already included a lot of fun DCEU Easter eggs in the film that it will be fine even without Superman's appearance.
