Director David F. Sandberg and producer Peter Safran are “absolutely” ready to return for a sequel to their upcoming DC Comics movie ‘Shazam!’.  During an interview session with ComicBook.com, Safran stated “It’s easy for me to say, ‘I’m on board,'” he then turned to Sandberg. “What about you?”

“Let’s do it,” Sandberg replied, after which Safran concluded, “You heard it here!”

Superhero sequels are a no-brainer, and most fans just assumed there will be at least three movies in any cycle.  But not all creators think in those terms.  James Wan, who had made his name on small, low-budget horror movies in the ‘Conjuring’ universe, and made his big-budget debut on ‘Furious 7’ was more focused on just getting the CGI-heavy ‘Aquaman’ into theaters once.  He also expressed a desire to return to a smaller picture (or two) before tackling the ‘Aquaman’ sequel, which may be why Warner Brothers scheduled the sequel for 2022, four years after the first splashed into theaters.

One thing working in the favor of Sandberg, Wan, and ‘Wonder Woman’ helmer Patty Jenkins is the relaxed stance Warner Brothers has taken to their superhero movies.  Rather than forcing them to build a shared universe, these auteurs are allowed to focus more on simply building up their own characters.

Said Safran:

“I think that is the goal.  It is giving heroes their time to shine and not feeling like you have to shoehorn in some universal connection amongst them all. The studio’s been incredibly supportive and DC’s been supportive about saying, ‘Take the time that you need to introduce these characters in the right way and tell the stories that audiences want to see with these characters.'”

To that end, here is what Sandberg said fans can expect from ‘Shazam!’:

“The goal was to set up the bad guys as a real threat.  So, when the kids are threatened, you believe it like they could actually get hurt or even die. I think that’s really important in a movie to really set up the stakes and stay true to that.”

Of course, it remains to be seen if fans react to ‘Shazam!’ to the degree that a sequel is even in demand.  ‘Shazam!’ strikes theaters on April 5, 2019.