SHAZAM! Director on Why He's Not Disappointed There Was No BLACK ADAM Crossover, but Says It Was "A Missed Opportunity"

The fact that Shazam! and Black Adam weren’t set up together in a single franchise was a silly decision as the two characters have a long history together in the comics. Black Adam is a regular foe of Shazam! and seeing them cross paths on the big screen makes all the sense in the world.

The original plan was to have the two appear in the Shazam! movie, but Dwayne Johnson shut that down as he wanted Black Adam to have his own standalone film, which was a big mistake, as that film ended up being, at best, mediocre. That was a huge disappointment and a pointless movie. It’s like making a Venom movie without the involvement of Spider-Man.

I think the two characters would have been stronger together in a film, but Johnson wanted to change the hierarchy of the DC cinematic universe with Black Adam, by himself. Obviously, that didn’t work out the way he had hoped. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director David F. Sandberg was asked if he was disappointed at not being able to explore the Black Adam and Shazam's relationship, and while he explains that he’s not, he also understands that it was a missed opportunity. He said:

"No, not really. The thing about Black Adam is that he has the same powers as Shazam, and we did that in the first movie where we gave Sivana [Mark Strong] the same power. So I don't think the fight itself would've been super interesting, but I do think it's a missed opportunity. What makes the most sense is to have them fight each other, so it's money left on the table. But it's how it is."

Yep, it’s definitely money left on the table! I have no doubt that if the story of Shazam and Black Adam would have been built out over the course of two or three films, this would have been a much stranger and more successful franchise than what it became.