Shazam Movies in Order (Including ‘Black Adam’)
A few decades ago, the superhero genre was limited to adapting only the most popular superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. But with superhero movies gaining more and more popularity and eventually becoming mainstream, the two biggest comic book houses decided to give a chance to less popular characters. Marvel broke their ice in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy, and DC started with TV shows like Arrow and The Flash before they started introducing B and C-list characters to the big screen.
One of those characters was Shazam, formerly known as DC’s Captain Marvel. Although he existed since 1940, Shazam became a part of DC’s canon in 1973. However, the character’s appearances in other media were still limited to minor roles in animated projects until 2019, when Zachary Levi debuted as the character in the Shazam movie directed by David F. Sandberg. With the introduction of Shazam on the big screen, a new sub-franchise in DCEU was launched, so now we’re looking at all Shazam movies released so far, including that one spin-off movie.
How many Shazam movies are there?
As of right now, there are two Shazam movies and one spin-off movie centered on the character of Black Adam, who is an anti-hero and Shazam’s nemesis, whose powers have the same origin as Shazam’s.
Shazam movies in order (at a glance)
Shazam movies are officially set in DC Extended Universe. Still, despite the references and some guest appearances that are omnipresent in those movies, the knowledge of other DCEU movies isn’t needed to watch them as standalone movies. The order of Shazam movies and its spin-off goes as follows:
- Shazam! (2019)
- Black Adam (2022)
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Are Shazam movies connected? Do you need to watch them in a specific order?
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a direct sequel to the original Shazam movie, so it’s definitely recommended to both movies the way they were released. On the other hand, the spin-off movie Black Adam isn’t needed to understand the Shazam duology, nor do you need Shazam movies to watch and understand the spin-off movie as its own (although it helps).
What is the best way to watch Shazam movies?
Two Shazam movies and the spin-off movie Black Adam can be watched separately. Meaning you can watch both Shazam movies before watching Black Adam, you can watch Black Adam before watching Shazam movies, or you can watch Black Adam between those two Shazam movies. In the end, everything will sit in its place, and continuity will work. The only important thing, of course, is not to watch Fury of the Gods before the original Shazam movie. Still, out of all the ways that work, we’d recommend that you watch these movies by the release date.
Shazam movies in order
Shazam! (2019)
The original Shazam movie follows Billy Batson, a 14-year-old foster kid who regularly switches foster homes while unsuccessfully looking for his birth mother. The story begins once Billy is accepted into another foster home with five foster siblings, and there he befriends Freddy, a superhero fanatic.
One day at school, after he defended Freddy from bullies, Billy runs to the subway, which will transport him to the Rock of Eternity, where a wizard known as Shazam will transfer his powers to him, transforming Billy into an adult, but still immature, superhero with great powers to use them for good. Billy doesn’t know that he will soon be hunted by evil Dr. Sivana, who is looking for revenge after the wizard deemed him unworthy of Shazam’s powers when he was a kid.
Black Adam (2022)
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was attached to play the role of Black Adam even before DC Extended Universe started. Johnson plays the role of Teth-Adam, a former slave from Kahndaq who was given the powers of Shazam to free the people from the reign of tyrannical king Ahk-Ton. Five thousand years later, Black Adam is freed from his tomb, and now he’s ready to unleash his not-so-merciful sense of justice upon the modern world. Justice Society of America will assemble to stop him, but they don’t know that a powerful common enemy is also rising against Kahndaq and the entire world.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
A few years after the events of the original Shazam movie, the Shazam family is doing what needs to be done to keep the peace in Philadephia. However, the next adventure will start with the arrival of the daughters of Atlas, powerful demigods who want to use the staff of wizard Shazam to strip away powers from Billy and his family and rebuild the realm of gods, which will also put the whole world at risk. While powerful but still rather inexperienced, Billy will need to use all the help he can get and find a true hero inside of him to defeat the biggest threat he’s ever faced, so far at least.
Where to watch Shazam movies?
The original Shazam movie and its spin-off Black Adam are both available to stream on HBOMax. At the time of this writing, Shazam! Fury of the Gods plays exclusively in theaters, and it’s currently unknown when it will be released digitally. Given that it’s WB/DC movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is also expected to arrive on HBOMax eventually.
Will there be more Shazam movies?
The ending of Shazam! Fury of the Gods has left some doors open for the possible third movie. However, DCEU will be concluded with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom this year, and in 2025 a new soft reboot franchise called DCU will begin. While DCEU and DCU will be connected to some extent, it’s unknown whether Shazam is in plans for DCU that DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran are currently developing. It all depends on the financial result of Fury of the Gods.
Dwayne Johnson announced Black Adam as the first of many movies in which he’ll play the titular character. However, the original Black Adam movie received mixed to negative reviews and was a box office disappointment. And with all the changes from DCEU to DCU happening now, at this moment, it’s very unlikely that the Black Adam sequel will happen, and the same goes for Shazam and Black Adam crossover movie, which was also initially planned. The future on the big screen for Shazam and Black Adam isn’t so clear right now.
