Shazam! director reveals he decided to never direct an IP-based movie again: Here’s why

Shazam! Fury of the Gods was overshadowed by the fury of fans after they went bananas. That happened, and David F. Sandberg, who had recently come fresh off the back of directing Until Dawn, a movie based on a 2015 video game, was left rocked to the core. He decided not to do a superhero film again, or, to be precise, any IP-based film.

He had an exclusive chat with GamesRadar where he shared the news and what led to this reversed course. He said:

"I mean, to be honest, fans can get very, very crazy and very angry with you. You can get, like, death threats and everything so after Shazam 2, I was like, 'I never wanna do another IP-based movie because it's just not worth it,' but then I was sent this script, and I was like, 'Ah, this would be so much fun to do, to do all these kinds of horrors? I kind of have to do it, and hope that the people see what we're trying to do and like it.' I really thought it was brilliant of the writers to come up with this time loop idea where the night starts over because then you do kind of get that feel of the game, when you're replaying it and making different choices. I think it's very much in the spirit of the game."

Though there is a little issue here, Until Dawn was met with a similar reaction and was slammed by many. Though the situation doesn't seem to have escalated like after Shazam! Fury of the Gods was released.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods' failure was a result of poor marketing

Wonder Woman had a cameo in the second Shazam! film. (Image via Warner Bros.)

Zachary Levi, who reprised the titular role of Shazam from the 2019 film, believed that the 2023 film's box-office failure was largely due to poor marketing. Many families weren't even aware that it was a family movie, which is one of the reasons he thinks it performed poorly.

But here's one twist that will deem all of this as a shocker. Sandberg showed his surprise in one now-deleted post on Twitter (now X) that he got the lowest critical score and highest audience score for the same film. If we look at Rotten Tomatoes, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has got 49% approval from critics and 85% approval from audiences. That indicates these "very, very crazy and very angry" fans were few.

Sandberg's decision to go back and hug horror again wasn't surprising

Discussing the feature films, David F. Sandberg dropped a horror grenade, Lights Out (2016), first, which exploded at the box office. The film went on to earn nearly $150 million against its $5 million budget. Then came Annabelle: Creation in 2017, which was more or less the same. Shazam! and Shazam! Fury of the Gods was his following project.

If we take into account the contents of that now-deleted tweet again, he mentioned that he is "eager to go back to horror." That said, he appears to have already made up his mind, and the challenging Until Dawn gave him the opportunity to get back on track.