Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Directed by David F. Sandberg
No — Shazam! Fury of the Gods is not especially woke, scoring 22 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
The sequel to a superhero franchise about a boy who becomes a grown man by shouting a single word arrives with a foster family that resembles a modern census report, and treats the fact with the indifference of a household deciding what to have for dinner.
Consciousness Markers
The film features a multiracial foster family, a physically disabled lead, and a diverse supporting cast including Black, Asian, and Latino actors, though this diversity is presented naturally rather than as a central message.
Pedro Peña is briefly revealed to be gay in a minor coming-out moment, but the film does not explore LGBTQ+ themes further.
The antagonists are three powerful sisters (the Daughters of Atlas) and the hero team includes several capable female characters, but the film lacks an explicit feminist agenda or commentary.
The cast is racially diverse, but race is not a thematic focus and no racial consciousness or commentary is present.
The film has mild moral lessons about family and heroism, but it is not preachy or lecture-driven.
There is no environmental or climate-related theme in the film.
The film contains no critique of capitalism or wealth inequality.
There is no body positivity message or related content.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are present; Freddy's disability is physical, not neurodivergent.
The film uses Greek mythology in a fantasy context but does not engage in revisionist history.
Why it received this score
The sequel to a superhero franchise about a boy who becomes a grown man by shouting a single word arrives with a foster family that resembles a modern census report, and treats the fact with the indifference of a household deciding what to have for dinner. A lead character walks with a crutch. A brother mentions a boyfriend in passing, the way a person mentions owning a sedan. The film does not pause to congratulate itself, which is its own small mercy. Diversity here is furniture, not sermon. The camera simply notes who is in the room and moves on to the dragon.
The antagonists are three sisters with a grudge against the gods, and the hero team fields several women who punch above their weight, but nobody delivers a thesis about it. The screenplay has other business: a dome over Philadelphia, a sentient pen, a tree that spawns monsters at a baseball stadium. There is no climate lament, no indictment of billionaires, no celebration of the body, no neurodivergent arc, and no attempt to rewrite the historical record. Greek mythology is raided for props and left where it fell. What moral instruction survives is the soft kind, about family and showing up for one another, delivered without a raised finger.
This is a film that wants to be liked and mostly succeeds at being tolerated. It carries the progressive furniture of its era without ever rearranging the room around it. The result is a superhero picture that is diverse by casting sheet, female by antagonist count, and gay by a single line of dialogue, then goes back to smashing a dragon with dark unicorns. We have classified it. We have survived it. The Academy did not call, the box office did not either, and the film seems at peace with that.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Part of
Synopsis
Billy Batson and his foster siblings, who transform into superheroes by saying "Shazam!", are forced to get back into action and fight the Daughters of Atlas, who they must stop from using a weapon that could destroy the world.
Questions about Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Is Shazam! Fury of the Gods woke?
No — Shazam! Fury of the Gods is not especially woke, scoring 22 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Based.
Does Shazam! Fury of the Gods have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (60). On Representation Casting: The film features a multiracial foster family, a physically disabled lead, and a diverse supporting cast including Black, Asian, and Latino actors, though this diversity is presented naturally rather than as a central message.
How does Shazam! Fury of the Gods compare to other 2023 movies?
It ranks #76 of the 200 films from 2023 we've scored; their average is 24. The wokest is Origin (84).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.