‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ Recap & Ending Explained: Billy Batson Gets His Superhero Name

After four years of waiting, the sequel to the original Shazam movie is finally here — Shazam! Fury of the Gods! David F. Sandberg returns as a director, and Zachary Levi is back as the titular character. Asher Angel reprises the role of Billy Batson, a young fellow who can turn into a powerful, but still immature, superhero by saying the magic word Shazam!

The original Shazam movie was released in April 2019. It received positive reviews for its lighthearted tone and sense of fun and was a box office success with $366 million worldwide against a $100 million budget. The sequel follows Billy and his siblings, collectively known as the Shazam family, on their next adventure as they face off against the Daughters of Atlas, who want to steal Billy and his siblings’ powers and threaten the world the meantime. That’s as much as we can say without spoiling anything from the sequel.

In the rest of this article, we will tell you how the movie ended and what it means for the future of Shazam on the big screen. The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods. So, keep reading at your own risk.

What is the story of Shazam! Fury of the Gods?

The movie starts with two Daughters of Atlas, Hespera and Kalypso, who steal the Wizard’s staff that gave Billy Batson and his sibling the powers of Shazam before Billy breaks the staff so that Dr. Sivana, the villain of the original movie, cannot use it to steal the power from him. Hespera and Kalypso’s motives lie in wanting to take powers from Billy and the others and rebuild the world of gods by planting a tree with golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides.

In the meantime, the Shazam family is still trying to do their best to protect their city while the news calls them “the Philadelphia Fiasco.” Billy is trying to enforce the “everyone or no one” rule to ensure the whole family will work together, while Freddy likes to go out and do his superhero-ing by himself. One day at school, Freddy meets a new classmate Anne, who he tries to impress by telling her he knows the local superhero. Once Freddy shows up in front of Anne in his superhero form, it will turn out that Anne is actually Anthea, the third Daughter of Atlas.

Hespera and Kalypso arrive and use the staff, which was repaired by the Wizard Shazam, who is locked in their dungeons, to strip Freddy’s powers away. As Billy and the rest of the family are coming for his rescue, daughters kidnap Freddy and take him to the same dungeon with the Wizard, while Hespera creates a magical dome to ensure no one can leave the city, now even Billy in his Shazam form.

Kalypso uses her powers on Freddy to find out who the rest of the champions can turn into superheroes, and Hespera throws him and the Wizard into a pit with a dragon called Ladon. Anthea saves Freddy and the Wizard from the dragon and helps them escape. Meanwhile, Billy calls Hespera to negotiate Freddy’s safe return. The family sets up the ambush, and they manage to catch Hespera and take her to the Rock of Eternity, but only because she let them. Hespera escapes, but now before she takes the golden apple that can be used to plant a new tree.

Hespera and Anthea want to plant the tree to rebuild the realm of gods, but Kalypso wants to do it in the realm of men, which would destroy the entire world. The Shazam family arrives using one of the doors in the Rock of Eternity; they take the golden apple and run through the doors back to their house, where their foster mom and dad learn about the superhero lives of their foster children. Kalypso flies on Ladon to the world of men, destroying the house’s roof, and uses the staff to steal powers from everyone except Billy.

Kalypso takes back the golden apple and plants it in the middle of the stadium. The tree’s roots spread through the entire city, and many dark mythological creatures start coming out of the roots, threatening the people. Seeing that Kalypso just wants to destroy humankind, Hespera and Anthea try to stop her, by Kalypso orders Ladon to stab Hespera with its tail, and she uses the staff to steal powers from Anthea, turning her into an ordinary woman.

While Kalypso attacks the city, Billy comes to dying Hespera and asks her for help. Billy attacks Kalypso and manages to take back the staff, after which Hespera shrinks the dome around the city so small that only Billy, Kalypso, and the tree are left within. Billy uses his powers to absorb them into the staff. After stabbing the dragon with the staff, he screams Shazam one last time, eradicating everything that is inside the dome, and Hespera dies, calling Billy a true god while watching his heroic act.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods Ending Explained

The family finds Billy, who sacrificed himself, and they bury him at the place of the gods. Wizard says that the god can restore the staff’s power only, and there are no more gods. At that moment, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman appears and uses the staff to bring Billy back to life and restore Anthea’s powers. The staff is used again so that all of Billy’s siblings can get their powers back, and Anthea decides to say in the world of men, becoming Freddy’s girlfriend.

The movie ends with the family back in their house, which is now under reconstruction. While they’re getting ready for a meal, a doorbell rings. Billy opens a door, and they see a shaved Wizard Shazam wearing casual clothes as he’s ready to travel the world and meet our world. Before he leaves, Billy asks him what his superhero name is, and Wizard says it’s “Shazam,” which was obvious all along. But still, Freddy jokingly says they can still find a better name than that. And that’s where the movie ends.

This movie has certainly taken the story of Shazam to a whole new level, which is what the sequel is always expected to do. While the story of this movie is properly finished, the ending still tells us there could be another sequel. Under normal circumstances, we would say that the third movie would be a sure thing, especially due to the post-credit scenes. However, with DCEU at its end and DCU taking over as the new cinematic universe of DC characters, it’s not known what plans current DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have.

Gunn recently announced the first projects that will be set in the DCU, and while some DCEU actors will continue to play their roles in DCU, some major roles, like Batman and Superman, will be recast. It’s not known if Gunn has any plans for Shazam in his DCEU, but if Fury of the Gods achieves a satisfying box-office result, we may not say goodbye to Shazam just yet.

This movie also featured a special cameo from Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot. Gadot is also one of the actors who’s been in DCEU’s good graces, but her future as Wonder Woman also remains unknown. Her third solo movie has been canceled, but that doesn’t mean she is indeed done with playing the role (as we have seen in this movie as well).

Shazam! Fury of the Gods continues the story of Billy Batson and his family in a very satisfying way. After this movie, we can’t do anything but want more of Zachary Levi and Asher Angel’s Shazam. We really hope the Shazam family will find their way to Gunn’s DCEU. After all, Gunn’s wife, Jennifer Holland, reprised the role of Emilia Harcourt in the mid-credit scene, so let’s hope Gunn wants to keep Shazam in DCU’s roster.