Shazam! Fury of the Gods is out now digitally, and with its digital release comes a variety of deleted scenes for the project. Taking to social media, director David F. Sandberg revealed some of the reasons behind trimming certain scenes from the film.
In a series of tweets replying to fans, Sandberg addressed three specific scenes that made their way online. The first was during the battle between Shazam and Kalypso, and saw a crowd of onlookers beginning to cheer Shazam on, before he sang a brief rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s song “Holding Out for a Hero.”
According to Sandberg, this scene was cut because it was making the film too long and because some people find Shazam “too goofy,” so that his singing wouldn’t help with that.
The second scene is a conversation between Billy and Freddy, with the pair conversing about moving on in a heartfelt moment.
Similar to the first scene, Sandberg noted that because the movie was already too long, it had to go. Sandberg said that since the scene also didn’t connect with any others, it was an easier choice to remove instead of cutting something out of the plot. He did say, however, that just because the scene was cut doesn’t mean it was bad.
Finally, the third scene featured Grace Caroline Currey’s Mary using her powers to deliver pizzas. After stopping at a house party, she’s offered a beer and declines, only to come back after seeing some partygoers in the windows.
Sandberg called this and other scenes starring Currey some of the first he’d put back if he could, but said that when you need to shorten a film, it’s often the “character scenes” that are edited out before any “plot scenes.”
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now available to watch in theaters, as well as available to purchase digitally.
