Mark Strong confirms his DC villain Dr. Sivana will not appear in the upcoming Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Strong starred in the 2019 movie Shazam, which introduced young hero Billy Batson (Asher Angel) to the DCEU. Sivana, driven by the Seven Deadly Sins, sought to take Billy’s power for himself. Naturally, he failed at this, and the mid-credits scene for Shazam revealed Sivana to be in prison. However, it also looked like he might be aligning himself with Mister Mind and could appear in the sequel. Strong himself expressed interested in the movie just last year.

Shazam 2, officially titled Fury of the Gods, is scheduled for release in 2023. It will see the returns of Billy (played by both Angel and Zachary Levi) and his foster siblings as they embark on a new adventure, though the specifics of what that will entail remain a secret. What is certain, though, is that Shazam: Fury of the Gods will introduce new villains. They include Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and it’s possible they could be joined by some others. However, it’s already certain Dr. Sivana won’t be one of them.

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Strong recently spoke to Den of Geek about his new film Cruella and revealed he will not be a part of Shazam: Fury of the Gods. It sounds like he found out at the last minute, as Strong said, “I literally spoke to the producer last night, because I saw that Zach Levi tweeted that they’re about to start shooting in Atlanta.” However, he isn’t too bothered by his exclusion purely because of the villains who will be in Shazam 2:

“Dr. Sivana isn’t in Shazam! 2,” he confirms. “What’s happened is, I think Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu and perhaps someone else — they’ve got some female villains in. And to be honest with you, I’m very happy to take a back seat to some female villains and let them have a go, because judging by the work that Emma Thompson and Emma Stone have done in Cruella, it’s about time.”

Strong then went on to acknowledge he could appear in a potential Shazam 3, musing, “Who knows? He’s still got unfinished business with Mister Mind.” A third franchise installment hasn’t been confirmed just yet, though that isn’t surprising seeing as the second one is still two years away. Shazam: Fury of the Gods suffered some delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is the reason it won’t debut until 2023. Nevertheless, filming on Shazam 2 was supposed to begin last week, so work just might be underway now. Don’t expect to see Strong on set, though.

For fans who were excited to see what Dr. Sivana and Mister Mind would be getting up to in the Shazam sequel might be disappointed by this news. The mid-credits scene definitely seemed to be setting up something major; it just might take a while to see it come to fruition. In the meantime, Shazam: Fury of the Gods is poised to feature some exciting villains in Mirren and Liu (and someone else, per Strong’s comments), so audiences are still in for a treat. Strong’s attitude towards the entire situation only makes things better. It’s going to be a lot of fun seeing Levi go toe-to-toe with Mirren and Liu, so all’s well that ends well.

Source: Den of Geek

Key Release Dates
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  • The Suicide Squad (2021)Release date: Aug 06, 2021
  • The Batman (2022)Release date: Mar 04, 2022
  • DC League of Super-Pets (2022)Release date: Jul 29, 2022
  • Black Adam (2022)Release date: Oct 21, 2022
  • The Flash (2023)Release date: Jun 23, 2023
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)Release date: Mar 17, 2023
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2022)Release date: Dec 16, 2022
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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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