Shazam! Fury of the Gods focuses on two supernaturally empowered families. Billy Batson and his adopted brothers and sisters access godly power by speaking the word "Shazam." Opposite them is the trio of sisters known as the Daughters of Atlas, finally released from their prison inadvertently by Shazam's actions in the previous film.
The Daughters of Atlas come out of the gate as theatrical villains alongside dragons, unicorns, and all manner of monsters. But the performances from the cast are defined by an angry and focused humanity that gives them a much better sense of depth. Ahead of the theatrical release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods on Mar. 17, CBR spoke with Lucy Liu (Kalypso) and Rachel Zegler (Anthea) about finding the human motivation for their godly villains and the simple joys of getting to ride around on a pretend dragon.
CBR: Lucy, you get to go full arch-villain in this film. You're riding on the back of a dragon, shooting magical lasers at children. But there's still a relatable core to the character of Kalypso, a real genuine sense of rage that motivates her. What was it like finding that balance without letting one part overwhelm the other?
Lucy Liu: I think that was given by the writer Henry Gayden, who really gave us the mission of avenging our father. I think coming in and having a dimension of being cool and evil, that's not really what it was about. We came here [with] the intention of saving our world, and these people stole what we need to bring our world back to life. When you have that throughline, it gives it a lot more feeling and drama, ultimately. Also, we have the sisterhood, which then you see the hierarchy and the choice for us to have a sibling rivalry within that as well.
Lucy, I've also got to ask, how much fun is it to ride a dragon?
Liu: That was the first time I've done that, and maybe it'll be the last. I don't know if it'll be the last, but I've cherished and relished every moment of it. I really got to see the final result in the film. Even when we were doing it and shooting it on the mechanism itself, it was fantastic. To see that and understand that that's something you can make into a dragon later on was amazing.
Speaking of sisters, Rachel -- I wanted to talk about Anthea because she's such a sweet character! When she's introduced, I was trying to figure out if there was some con, and it turns out she's just a sweetheart. When you were first reading the script, was that how you were going to approach the character?
Rachel Zegler: Not at all. When David called me to tell me I got the part, I had no idea what part I was even auditioning for. You know how these movies can be so secretive. And he told me that she switches it up on Freddy, and she's one of the bad guys, and you have no idea. Then I remember reading the script, and she's not all that [bad]. She's got good intentions. She's got a heart of gold. And she really believes in their mission.
But it's not the way that she wants to execute the plan. She's the one who grounds Hespera into trying to take a step back because, at the end of the day, they are just children. It was really fun. I obviously like playing characters that have hearts of gold. But it was also fun to watch and have the gravitas of being bad. As we know, we're not all good. We believe in our mission. So it's pretty cool.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods debuts in theaters Mar. 17.