Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu break down their Shazam! Fury of the Gods villains

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Exclusive: Fury of the Gods' villains talk to SFX all about their goddesses and the physical toll of filming

Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu in Shazam Fury of the Gods
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Shazam risks the Fury of the Gods in the upcoming DC sequel. Once again starring Zachary Levi as boy-turned-superhero Billy Batson, the follow-up to 2019’s Shazam! sees the wish fulfilment fantasy turn into a tussle with the Daughters of Atlas, a trio of goddesses played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler.

"We basically come to this world to avenge our father. We come to reclaim what we think is rightfully ours. We have a mission, and that’s something that keeps us together as sisters, and also keeps us very clear on what our focus is," Liu says of the villains’ motivations in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features The Mandalorian season 3 on the cover.

For both Liu and Mirren, who play Kalypso and Hespera respectively, the roles also contain their fair share of physicality. 

"I’ve got my Shazam finger… Can you see that? [shows SFX her hand]. That finger's all bent. I had to hit someone. They’re brilliant stunt people, fantastic, but he said, ‘You must follow through, otherwise it doesn’t look right.’ So I did follow through, straight into a concrete wall," Mirren says.

Liu adds, "For this it was understanding how rigorous it is to be a part of an action movie because of the hours. And for me the costume was not easy. It was heavy, and so that was something that we really needed to get used to, all of us. But that almost really kept you in shape before you had to do anything physical!"

Director David F. Sandberg, meanwhile, teases why the Daughters of Atlas don’t necessarily go down the "usual comic book villain route."

"The goddesses aren’t completely in the wrong, at least not in their motivation," Sandberg reveals. "But the way they go about it is very wrong, because they do some evil things. I thought that was very interesting and unique, to not go the usual comic book villain route. And mythological creatures and superpowers go very well together."

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The cover of SFX 363 and some of the features inside.

(Image credit: Future)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is out in theaters on March 17, 2023. That's just a snippet of our interviews, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine with The Mandalorian season 3 on the cover, available on newsstands now! For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.

Nick Setchfield
Nick Setchfield
Editor-at-Large, SFX Magazine

Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Titan Books. His original novels are called The War in the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements. 

With contributions from