Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan are no strangers to writing big budget ensemble films. Gayden, coming off of successes like the first SHAZAM! and EARTH TO ECHO, and Morgan, coming off a few films in the FAST AND FURIOUS franchise, combine their superpowers with the super fun sequel SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS. Though this chapter is centered on Billy Batson (Asher Angel/ Zachary Levi) and his struggle to hold on too tightly to his newly adopted family, it also welcomes 3 new antagonists (played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler), making for a sprawling cast. Yet the story and these characters’ strife is totally balanced and give its superstars their time in the spotlight.
There are so many places a sequel can start, but I’m curious where it began here: Was it on which antagonists you’d be using, or is it with the emotional stakes of Billy’s continuing journey with his new family?
Henry Gayden: “It all started with the emotional stakes – or really just the emotional space of Billy now that he has gotten a family. The first thing we knew when he gets a family is he’s probably terrified of losing it, so what does he do and how does he damage his relationships with them because he’s afraid of losing them. So then we built the story around that and looked various antagonists until we came up with the 3 daughters of Atlas, who, like him, had experienced loss and want to seek vengeance on these superheroes who no one thinks deserve their powers, most of all these villains. It was a long development process to get to them.”
What were some of the goals and challenges to make this sequel bigger and bolder than the first but still make it totally in line with the first?
Chris Morgan: “From my experience, with sequels, the goal is, once you have an established group of characters that you love and want to spend time with, you wanna watch how they grow and the hurdles they come up against and want them to be challenged and cleverly find a way around those life issues. I think what Henry was just saying about why they chose the story is because Billy and the family are growing up now and Billy’s threatening to age out and potentially lose what he’s fought so hard for, which is to belong and have a family that means something to each other. I think that no matter what you’re doing, if you’re coming from a character place like that’s the natural, best place to take any subsequent installment of the next movie and franchise.”
How difficult an act was it to balance this established ensemble and add 3 villains in one movie and give them time to shine?
Gayden: “I just realized when you asked this question. But here’s something I know about myself: every time I take a new project, why are there 15 goddamn characters I have to deal with?!”
Morgan: (laughs)
Gayden: “I only do movies with giant ensembles. And when you asked that question, I was like, ‘And so does Chris.’
Morgan: “That’s right.”
Gayden: “I don’t know. There’s no part of it that invites this fresh Hell each time, because we love to create characters we love and give them moments. It is a juggling act, but one I keep signing up for because I really love doing it. I almost don’t know how to do an intimate, two-person movie.”
Morgan: “I love it because it gives you every type of emotional response to bounce off your characters. You can pair them up in interesting ways and, depending on where your plot is going, you can choose which characters have to deal with which things that are the most entertaining and let you skip around the story to really hit those fun, or scary, or dangerous character beats. I love ensemble pieces.”
Gayden: “I do too. People always ask me, ‘Are you a Freddy, or a Billy, or Darla?’ And the truth is I’m all of them – small parts of me. Darla is like the people pleaser and Pedro is the one who doesn’t feel like he’s good enough and Freddy’s the one who’s assembled his identity out of his obsessions. Once you find a personal connection to all the characters, they all feel important to you.”
Was it difficult to modulating the tone so it all fits and we don’t get whiplash? When I describe it, I feel like I’m Stefan from SNL – and I mean that positively.
Gayden: “It’s a good question and I have to say it came out pretty naturally because of our gifted director and cast and everyone putting it together the way it did. But the only time we really had to walk a line is the very, very end and we had to figure out how to modulate that moment and pull back any impulse for comedy because it’s not about that anymore.”
Morgan: “I love hearing your summary of it because it sounds chaotic in the best way. But also it actually is what it’s supposed to be which is a teenager inherits god powers from Greek Pantheons, and the fallout here is that other things are coming into our world now and there’s a reckoning that’s going to happen. There’s a lot of stuff but it all comes from a natural origin story.”
Which sequence was your favorite to write and why?
Morgan: “Good question.”
Gayden: “I can tell you what my favorite one to watch them film was and my favorite thing in the movie. It’s when Helen Mirren receives the bird letter. It’s so great seeing Steve and how he writes the letter and the letter being delivered to her. It’s honestly the funniest scenes in the movie and I’m so happy it hasn’t been spoiled in trailers. So that’s my favorite moment.”
Morgan: “I love that scene. It’s so deadpan. I also love the banter back and forth between Freddy and the Wizard in the cell. I love when Shazam goes to negotiate with Hespera. There’s just so many great fun stuff.”
The bird letter scene gave me my favorite line delivery of the year of Helen Mirren asking, “Anyone else want a Gatorade?”
Gayden: “I can’t tell you… So there was a moment where Lucy was like ‘Can I have a little comedy here and there?’ I remember giving her ‘What is a Gatorade? Is it a weapon?’ Doling out the Gatorade of it all was so much fun.”
Morgan: “That was hilarious. When Henry showed me the pages he did, I laughed so hard. Also THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS shout-out that you worked in there.”
Gayden: “That was me doffing my cap to Chris Morgan and all his good work.”
I was just going to ask who put that in.
Gayden: “Chris is too classy to put that in.”
Morgan: “I am not. I just didn’t think of it.”
Are you at all writing with budget or a PG-13 rating in mind?
Gayden: “Fortunately, I don’t think about budget, which is crazy to think about. But, yeah, PG-13 in mind a little bit with language. Having done two of these movies, it’s pretty natural to hold back my impulse to curse.”
Morgan: “I will say, for me, I’m always writing with budget in mind. Just because things are so expense and you have to be a good partner to the studio and really keep track on what things are going to cost. And when you get into action, sometimes it gets very expensive. That’s just a paranoia I have.”
What did you each learn from each other combining your own superhero talents writing this together?
Gayden: “I don’t know if Chris can learn anything from me, but I certainly admired and was in awe of his ability to take the super structure of a story and construct a skyscraper of story with words and each piece connects really, really well. When he came in, he really helped us build out the lore and the daughters world and stuff. It was so clearly something he could do that I am learning from still.”
Morgan: “I would say that one of the things I’ve been in awe of with Henry is his ability to happen to a genuine, funny teenage brain in a way that I was not good at when I was a teenager. I was not clever in that way. He, so naturally, understands these characters that I take a backseat and take his lead that he’s blazed through. I wish I was smart enough to learn that. It’s just some power that he has that I will remain in awe of and be thankful for working together.
I will say that, just for the record with this experience, typically with writers, you’re always a little bit wary, because the industry kind of pits writers against each other for their own livelihood and there’s always a question of like, ‘How’s it going to be working together? Is someone going to be upset? Are their words going to change?’ This collaboration was so fun and so kind and so open that really it is a great example of how all writers should be. To me, I’m just really, really thankful for this experience.”
Gayden: “Same. Agreed. And it’s rare. Like I know other writers and it’s just not always this experience. It’s been wonderful.”
SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS opens in theaters on March 17.
