Warning, spoilers for Shazam 2 follow: The live-action universe of the DC adaptations is in transition. Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman will be absent from James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe and their characters will be recast. The future of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is a little more unclear.
A third Wonder Woman film has been canceled, but Gal Gadot’s return isn’t entirely out of the question. Amid all the uncertainty, there’s now a surprise: Wonder Woman is in Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods, one of the last films set in the old DC Universe before it’s demolished. But should this performance be her last, it would be an embarrassing farewell.
Why is Wonder Womans in Shazam 2 at all?
The DC sequel Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods is clearly trying to shield its title hero from the rest of the dead DCEU or the SnyderVerse. In the film, a dome is literally erected over Philadelphia to keep Justice League members like Superman and Batman out. However, that doesn’t quite work.
Because at the end of the film, the superheroine Wonder Woman is allowed to appear in person and save the day. The appearance, which was officially unveiled in a TV commercial shortly before the cinema was released, comes unexpectedly. Because Wonder Woman has had nothing to do with Shazam (Zachary Levi) so far.
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Wonder Woman in Shazam 2
In the finale of Shazam 2, Billy Batson aka Shazam sacrifices his life to save Philadelphia (and the world) from destruction. With the gods’ magic exhausted and no more gods seem to exist, Billy’s death is final. A sad funeral scene in the realm of the gods follows – until suddenly Hans Zimmer’s crashing Wonder Woman theme is heard.
It is the ultimate Deus Ex Machina moment. A demigod, Wonder Woman can easily infuse the Staff of the Gods with magic and bring Shazam back from the dead. Of course, this moment doesn’t come entirely out of nowhere. Her appearance was already prepared by Billy’s date dream with a headless Wonder Woman and a letter sent to the Amazon princess.
Wonder Woman’s final DCEU appearance ends on a bad joke
The Wonder Woman performance may be heroic though. However, it destroys the depressing mood of mourning and robs the previous finale of all its emotional power. Now who cares about Billy’s grieving family when Wonder Woman is suddenly in the room? But that’s not the most embarrassing thing about her performance.
Because after Shazam’s resurrection, Wonder Woman’s final DCEU appearance ends with a clumsy incest joke. Deeply in love with the demigod, Shazam would like to invite her out on a date. And he does that by pointing out to her that he’s coming of age soon and that romantic involvement is totally fine. Because: Although through Shazam flows the power of Zeus and with it Wonder Woman’s fatherif they weren’t directly related.
Wonder Woman politely declines the offer and bids farewell to an uncertain future. Sure, the awkward meeting between the teenage superhero body and the thousands-year-old demigod is hilarious and fits the film’s mostly humorous tone. However, as a sudden Deus Ex Machina solution with an incest gag, the whole performance seems out of place.
We don’t know when and if we’ll see Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman again. A cameo appearance in the upcoming The Flash is said to have been removed from the film. And with that, the Shazam 2 cameo remains her possibly last appearance in the old DC movie universe. After 7 years, the superheroine deserved a better farewell.
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