It’s been clear that Dame Helen Mirren has enjoyed doing the occasional over-the-top blockbuster over the 15 years or so — a respite from all her brilliant performances in decades of serious fare. (Although she was never above blockbusters, with Excalibur and 2010: The Year We Make Contact dotting the ‘80s portion of her CV.) She’s even done two comic book movies: the retired assassin romp RED and its 2013 sequel. But one thing she’s never done is a superhero movie, and there’s no reason to think she won’t enjoy torturing the hell out of our bifurcated heroes in the sequel to Shazam!
As per Deadline, the Oscar-winning thespian is taking on the role of Hespera, daughter of no less than the titan Atlas, in Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Atlas is one of the gods whose power our hero — Zachary Levi’s kid-at-heart Shazam, and the alter ego of Asher Angel’s teenage Billy Baston — can emulate, along with Mercury, Solomon, Hercules, and Achilles.
Much more importantly, he’ll have to square off against Mirren, who ever since winning her Academy Award for The Queen has juggled serious fare with, well, multiple Fast and/or Furious entries, including playing Jason Statham’s mom in both the eight episode and its spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. She always seems to enjoy herself, and not only because of the giant paychecks, so this should be fun for all of us.
(Via Deadline)