Warning: SPOILERS for Shazam! Fury of the Gods are ahead!
If you were lucky enough not to avoid seeing that spoilery Shazam! Fury of the Gods TV spot, then you were like likely surprised by the major cameo towards the end of the latest DC movie. After Billy Batson gave his life to save Earth from Kalypso, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman came to the Gods’ Realm to repair The Wizard’s staff, which was subsequently used to revive Billy and restore the Realm. However, it wasn’t easy shooting Gadot’s big cameo in Fury of the Gods, and director David F. Sandberg has revealed the wild way he pulled it off.
Grace Caroline Curry, who plays Mary Bromfield in both her civilian and superhero forms in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, informed CinemaBlend that logistical issues preventing the sequel’s cast from filming with Gal Gadot. So instead, a stand-in was used on set, and as David F. Sandberg shared on Twitter, he was forced to direct Gadot remotely, which you can see below.
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. It wasn’t a deepfake as some believe. pic.twitter.com/p8ODDHWe9QMarch 22, 2023
A combination of Gal Gadot being in England and David F. Sandberg being unable to go to the country due to a “visa issue” required to deliver instructions on how he wanted her scene to be shot over a video call. It doesn’t look like it was too complicated an endeavor, with the guy on the other end of the call making sure he understood Sandberg’s instructions before feeding them back to the actress who made her DCEU debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
While it’s a shame that the other Shazam! Fury of the Gods actors weren’t able to meet Gal Gadot, at least this isn’t another instance of only a stand-in being used for a big DC superhero appearance, like when a headless Superman popped up at the end of Shazam!. This marked Gadot’s fifth appearance as Wonder Woman (if we’re counting both versions of Justice League), and followed a little over two years after she was seen in Wonder Woman 1984. Jack Dylan Grazer also seemingly let slip that we’ll see Gadot back as Diana of Themyscira in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but her appearance in The Flash was reportedly cut.
As for what the future holds in store for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman after 2023, that’s unclear. Last December, Wonder Woman 3 was scrapped, and while there is a show called Paradise Lost in development for the DC Universe franchise that will take place on Themyscira before Diana’s birth, there was no mention of Wonder Woman herself during the presentation for the Chapter One slate, a.k.a. “Gods and Monsters.” That said, DC Studios co-head James Gunn debunked the claim that Gadot’s time as Wonder Woman is done, so all we can do for now is wait for official clarification on where things stand with her.
In the meantime, be sure to read our other coverage about Shazam! Fury of the Gods, such as David F. Sandberg explaining why the Justice League wasn’t involved, and the upcoming DC movies. If you’d rather watch the released DC movies in order, stream those with an HBO Max subscription.
