The following contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, now playing in theaters.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg has officially settled the Wonder Woman deepfake debate.
While Wonder Woman's appearance in Fury of the Gods was marketed ahead of the film's release, some fans mistakenly believed that Gal Gadot only returned via deepfaking with her likeness superimposed over that of body double Taylor Cahill. Sandberg has now provided proof that Gadot shot new footage for Fury of Gods, sharing on Twitter a video of himself directing the actor on set. "A certain cameo in #ShazamFuryOfTheGods had to be shot in England but I couldn’t go because of a visa issue so I directed remotely," Sandberg captioned the post. "It wasn’t a deepfake as some believe."
The confusion surrounding Gadot's cameo first emerged after a behind-the-scenes photo from the film showing body double Taylor Cahill in costume as Wonder Woman was released online. Despite Sandberg quickly reassuring fans at the time that Gadot was on set for her cameo and that Cahill was merely used to "figure out what coverage we then needed to get with Gal since she couldn’t make it to Atlanta," the debate still raged on regarding Wonder Woman's cameo in Fury of the Gods.
Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Freddy Freeman in the DC Universe, also confirmed that Gadot was on set, revealing in an interview that he met the actor.
Will Fans See Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman Again?
Shazam! Fury of the Gods marks Gal Gadot's fifth time portraying Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in the DCU. She previously appeared as the Amazonian in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). She was initially set to return for a third Wonder Woman film, but the project was scrapped following the appointment of James Gunn and Peter Safran as heads of DC Studios. Despite the DC leadership shuffle, Gunn has stated that Gadot has not been "booted" from the iconic DC role. At the same time, he has not clarified whether he intends to bring her back as Wonder Woman in future DCU projects.
Set several years after 2019's Shazam!, the DC sequel finds Asher Angel and Zachary Levi's Billy Batson/Shazam working alongside the rest of the Shazam Family to stop the Daughters of Atlas, played by Rachel Zegler, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu. The film also stars Grazer, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good and Djimon Hounsou.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Twitter