Although David F. Sandberg might be done with superhero movies, he still has some blockbusters in him.
The Shazam! (2019) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) director revealed that he got “death threats” over his work on the DCEU franchise, which nearly forced him to give up IP-based movies before his upcoming video game horror adaptation Until Dawnwhich premieres Friday.
“What I loved about the script [is] that it wasn’t trying to recreate the game,” he told Gamesradar+. “Trying to condense 10 hours into two, or something like that. But it is scary still, even though we’re doing a new thing.”
Sandberg continued, “I mean, to be honest, fans can get very, very crazy and very angry with you. You can get, like, death threats and everything so after Shazam 2I was like, ‘I never wanna do another IP-based movie because it’s just not worth it.’ But then I was sent this script, and I was like, ‘Ah, this would be so much fun to do, to do all these kinds of horrors? I kind of have to do it, and hope that the people see what we’re trying to do and like it.’”
After Fury of the Gods earned Sandberg his “lowest critic score” on Rotten Tomatoes at 49%, Sandberg said he was “a little surprised” at the negative response to the sequel.
David F. Sandberg
Rob Latour/Deadline
“As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things),” wrote Sandberg on Twitter at the time. “After six years of ShazamI’m definitely done with superheroes for now.”
Shazam! star Zachary Levi was also confused at the “insanely unkind” reviews, expressing doubt in another installment of the superhero franchise.
