Former DC Films president Walter Hamada has left Warner Bros. Discovery yesterday, but according to Shazam! Writer Henry Jayden, it was Hamada whose instincts lead to one of the film’s most surprising scenes: the scene where Billy Batson realizes he wasn’t an orphan, but rather abandoned. In a Twitter thread dedicated to this moment, Jayden revealed that early drafts of the script found Billy visiting his parents’ grave, until Hamada suggested writing an alternate version where Billy’s mother was alive, but she didn’t want to be reunited with him. Jayden admitted that his first instinct was to say the idea was too dark, and wouldn’t fit the tone of the relatively friendly family. Shazam!.
According to Gayden, he wrote the scene with the assumption that it would never be used. However, he said it became an indispensable part of the narrative.
Here’s how he explains it:
Screenwriters tend to protest studio executives and their feedback (sometimes it’s worth it), but I always tell this story as an example of how good transformative observation can be, and since Walt left DC today, here it is…
In early drafts of Shazam!Billy’s parents died.
Late in Chapter 2, he discovers their tombstones in Philly Cemetery. It was by heart, “We’ve seen this in other movies,” however, I thought – I wish! The effect of a visual image of a child finding the tombstones of his parents may be.
Then, one weekend, out of nowhere, Walt called me and said, “What if Billy’s mom is still alive but doesn’t want him?”
My immediate response was: “No, no way. That’s too heavy for a fun movie like this.”
To be clear, the writer (me) was telling the studio/head of the studio (Walt) that he was going too far on a limb, and that he was taking a very big swing creatively. I was adamant on how it wouldn’t work.
So we ended the conversation with him saying, “Just try writing it. He found his mom, and she doesn’t want him. If it doesn’t work, we have the cemetery scene. Try it.”
I hung up. All I have is the basic idea. No personality. There is no setting. I sat down and tried to write the scene.
An hour later, it was my favorite scene in the movie.
That was the scene the movie needed—so much so that when we were shooting it, I told our producer on set, “If that scene doesn’t work, the whole movie doesn’t.”
Unbeknownst to me, the actress who plays Billie’s mother (Carolyn Palmer:Care_all praise) was 10 feet from me when I said it. She later told me that my words felt cold. I terrified her. I can’t believe I did that to her. Fortunately, it was better than we could have ever dreamed of.
I still think the movie wouldn’t fully function without this scene.
It was Walt’s idea.
I literally told him he was crazy.
Shazam! It has a unique place in the DC movie universe: it’s been made much cheaper than movies like Justice Squad or amazing woman, so it earned smaller earnings at the box office, but that was ultimately enough for the studio to make it a hit. A sequel is on the way, along with a minor element in the form of black Adam, which is going in the opposite direction. Not only does it spend a lot of money, and introduces many superheroes, but the movie also looks so dark, no one will be surprised by a scene like that of Billy’s mother. This movie is coming to theaters tomorrow, and Shazam: Wrath of the Gods It will come out in March.
Shazam! They are currently streaming on HBO Max. You can buy it on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital.
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