Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Didn't Forget About The First Movie's Mister Mind Scene: 'He's Working On Something'
The following article contains spoilers for "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," including the after-credits scene.
"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is in theaters after a years-long wait. When we meet up with our heroes in the new chapter, the Shazamily has been fighting crime and not doing the best job of it. They get distracted by kittens and have fun with their powers because after all, they're kids They battle it out with the Daughters of Atlas (Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler) and save the world while trying to keep their secret safe from their foster parents (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews) and finish growing up.
These kids are very busy, and perhaps they've forgotten about Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) now that he's in jail. Of course, they didn't see what audiences did; a little caterpillar/criminal genius named Mister Mind approaching Dr. Sivana in his cell in the after-credits scene.
If you recall, the little caterpillar with a mechanical device around his neck laughs at Sivana when he gets upset that he can't draw anymore on his walls. Mister Mind says there is more than one way to get magic and that he names the gods. Then he reveals, "The seven realms are about to be ours." It was a great scene with a weird little character that has been around since 1943, back when Shazam was called Captain Marvel.
Mister Mind (who was voiced by director David F. Sandberg) is an alien caterpillar with telepathy who works with the Monster Society of Evil. I recently spoke to Sandberg with a few other journalists after a screening of "Fury of the Gods," and he spoke about having a Mister Mind appearance at the end of the film. He also mentioned why Mister Mind wasn't in the rest of the story.
'What can we do that's different?'
Sandberg told us that the planning for a sequel began right after the first film's release. It took some time because they were looking more at the New 52 version of the characters, which they used for the first film (excluding Black Adam, he noted). Sandberg explained the problem with using those stories as inspiration for the sequel. He said:
"They went so much into fantasy world, where they went into different doors and different realms and everything like that. But what made the first 'Shazam!' work, I think, is that it is in sort of like a grounded world, where you have something fantastic happening in a grounded world. If it's fantastic happening in a fantastic world, it's not the same. That's when we started thinking, 'What can we do that's different?' and we started talking about mythology, because of his powers coming from gods and everything."
Despite the fact that there is some venturing into other realms here, the bulk of it takes place in our world. It allows us to really spend time with the characters, see how they've grown since we saw them last, and look at what's really going on with them in terms of interpersonal relationships. The thing about these films is that there are a whole lot of characters, and you don't want to make it so each kid has a single line. With all the kids, their step-parents, their alter egos, a wizard, and three goddesses, there really isn't time to add Mister Mind in unless you do it in a brief way.
'He's working on something'
After the credits roll, Mister Mind once again visits Sivana in his graffitied cell. When Sivana gets upset that it's been so long, Mister Mind says it takes him a long time to get places. I mean, he's a tiny worm! How far can he travel in two years? A few blocks? Sandberg said:
"Originally, we did start outlining a version where Mister Mind and Sivana were in it, and they were the ones who brought the gods here, but it was too much story to tell. Because even without that, it's still over a two-hour movie. But we got to at least check in with this Mister Mind person a little bit at the end. So he's still up to something ...
"Hopefully, [Mark Strong's character] will get out [of prison] at some point. It was pretty early on when [we knew] wanted to have some reference to [those characters]. Because I know people are going to be like, 'Hey, what happened to the worm from the first movie?' So it's like, 'No, he's working on something.' It just takes him a while."
I love that Sandberg decided not to over-clutter this film, but didn't just leave us hanging as though that scene didn't happen. He certainly didn't forget to do a callback to the headless Superman scene from the first film! I hope enough people go see this film (and that the new DCU heads, Peter Safran and James Gunn, are willing) so we can get a third ... complete with a very tired evil worm!
"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is currently in theaters.