Sinbad Almost Made The Mandela Effect Real With A Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Cameo
The tragedy of lost media is real ... especially when it's lost from everything but false childhood memories. In a truly bizarre situation, many '90s kids claim to have seen a movie called "Shazaam," wherein Sinbad played a genie summoned by a young brother and sister. But no such movie exists.
False memories can seem like a plot device out of science fiction, but they're actually pretty mundane. The human brain is imperfect, after all. What's more bizarre is when multiple, unrelated people have the same false memories. This phenomenon has been termed "the Mandela Effect," named for former South African President and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (under the eponymous effect, many remember him dying in prison in the 1980s despite abundant proof otherwise).
And these memories of "Shazaam" are false. Sinbad himself has refuted them via Twitter. He even suggested people are misremembering a costume he wore to host a TV marathon of Sinbad the Sailor movies as his "Shazaam" outfit. That said, he did get in on the joke by appearing in a College Humor sketch titled "We Found Sinbad's SHAZAAM Genie Movie!" The sketch (with VHS grains added to the footage for authenticity) purports to be the scene where the two young siblings Rachael (Jolie Ledford) and James (Bradley Bundlie) meet Shazaam.
According to "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" director David F. Sandberg, Sinbad was willing to poke fun at this Mandela Effect again by appearing in the superhero sequel.
The two Shazams
In response to a tweet by Sandberg, The Wrap reporter Scott Mendelsohn joked about Sinbad appearing in "Fury of the Gods." Sandberg revealed that he actually did have plans for Sinbad to make a cameo — "He was supposed to be the guy in the street who calls Shazam low voltage."
Billy Batson's superhero ego being called "Shazam" is a fairly new trend. Historically, he's been Captain Marvel. This root is also seen in the names of his "family" of heroes: Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and the UK-based successor Marvelman (now known as Miracleman). However, the current owner of Billy Batson is DC Comics, the rivals of Marvel comics (who have their own Captain Marvel). For branding purposes, DC has ditched the Captain Marvel name.
Billy's catchphrase, invoked when he transforms into an adult hero, has always been "Shazam!" So that's become his heroic moniker as well. Funnily enough, in College Humor's "Shazaam" parody, the same reason is given for the Genie's name: when he uses his powers, he declares, "Shazaam!"
Foiled Fury of the Gods cameos
Due to an undisclosed health issue, Sinbad canceled the appearance. However, Sandberg's efforts didn't stop there. See, a common explanation for "Shazaam" is that people are misremembering "Kazaam," a 1996 film wherein Shaquille O'Neal plays a genie. So after Sinbad bailed, Sandberg tried to get O'Neal to make the cameo instead. O'Neal agreed, but then he also had to pull out just days before shooting. As Sandberg lamented, "making cameos happen is hard."
There's one last twist in here that's the perfect capstone. The tweet that kicked off the revelation of Sinbad and Shaq's not-to-be cameos? It was Sandberg talking about a deleted scene from the first "Shazam!" where Billy and his super-powered siblings sit in the underground throne room and notice only six of the seven thrones are filled (the last one is for Black Adam). According to Sandberg, despite this scene being cut early, many people claim they saw "Shazam" with the scene intact. Even without Sinbad, the Mandela Effect has struck again. The human mind is like a genie — it creates what it wants.