Shazam Director Didn't Want to Make Another IP-Based Movie After 'Very, Very Crazy' Backlash to Shazam, but Returned for Until Dawn Adaptation

You astir apt ne'er thought you’d spot Shazam! and Shazam: Fury of the Gods manager David F. Sandberg helm different IP movie oregon franchise ever again — and honestly, helium didn’t either. But present that his caller movie Until Dawn is astir to get successful theaters, he’s reflecting connected the “very, precise crazy” backlash surrounding his erstwhile DC Cinematic Universe flops and what made him hold to instrumentality to the satellite of IP.

"What I loved astir the publication [is] that it wasn't trying to recreate the game," Sandberg told GamesRadar+ astir the beloved fearfulness crippled turned film. "Trying to condense 10 hours into two, oregon thing similar that. But it is scary still, adjacent though we're doing a caller thing.” He besides noted that, adjacent successful this lawsuit wherever he’s moving connected a crippled property, IP fans are truly peculiar astir however they privation their favourite communicative to beryllium realized connected screen.

"I mean, to beryllium honest, fans tin get very, precise brainsick and precise aggravated with you. You tin get, like, decease threats and everything truthful aft Shazam 2, I was like, 'I ne'er wanna bash different IP-based movie due to the fact that it's conscionable not worthy it,'" the filmmaker added of the DCU acquisition and its aftermath.

However, helium was intrigued by the imaginable of the communicative Until Dawn presents. "But past I was sent this script, and I was like, 'Ah, this would beryllium truthful overmuch amusive to do, to bash each these kinds of horrors? I benignant of person to bash it, and anticipation that the radical spot what we're trying to bash and similar it,’” Sandberg said. “I truly thought it was superb of the writers to travel up with this clip loop thought wherever the nighttime starts implicit due to the fact that past you bash benignant of get that consciousness of the game, erstwhile you're replaying it and making antithetic choices. I deliberation it's precise overmuch successful the tone of the game."

The filmmaker is intimately alert of the thought that you can’t delight each instrumentality erstwhile you’re adapting an IP property, but his attack seems to beryllium the champion mode to seizure the hearts of the Until Dawn fans. "I deliberation we would've gotten a batch of critique if we had tried to [recreate the game], due to the fact that radical would've been like, 'It's not arsenic good. It's not the aforesaid actors, because, you know, they're older now,'" the Shazam manager explained. "You wouldn't beryllium capable to amended the game, truthful you'd conscionable beryllium successful a losing situation."

Until Dawn was written by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman, who is possibly champion known arsenic the writer of It: Chapter Two, and stars Ella Rubin. The movie arrives successful theaters connected April 25, 2025.

Lex Briscuso is simply a movie and tv professional and a freelance amusement writer for IGN. You tin travel her connected Twitter astatine @nikonamerica.