The following contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, now playing in theaters
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is nominally about Billy Batson, aka Shazam (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi). But as soon as the first film allowed him to share his powers with the rest of his foster siblings, the stage was set for the rest of the family to play bigger roles in the sequel. This is especially true for Grace Caroline Currey, who plays both the human and superpowered forms of Mary.
But she also ends the film in an interesting place emotionally, quietly setting her up to move out into the larger DC Universe. During an interview with CBR to celebrate the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Grace Caroline Currey (Mary Marvel/Mary Bromfield) sat down to discuss Mary's growth (and spin-off potential) in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the dynamic she played alongside Billy Batson, her reaction to finding out Wonder Woman would be in the film, and her dream superhero to see Mary team up with.
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CBR: One of the things I love about Mary is that she's very much rooted in her place as a grounded young woman in the superhero universe. She wants to go to school and hang out with friends. Hungover Mary is exactly the kind of Mary I love.
Grace Caroline Currey: I totally agree. It's fun because she was so perfect in the comics. That was her essence. She was perfect Mary with her book of good deeds, and she definitely is a high achieving, high performer. I think she hungers to be good and perfect.. But she's a human, and she wants friends and experiences in life.
I think it's almost growing to see her with a hangover in this one. Because in the first one, she didn't have a life. She had committed to having a 5.0 GPA in school, which is impossible. I don't know how she did that. But she just had t0 work, work, work with school [and] caring about her family. In this one, we see her loosening the reins a little bit. She even is looking at Billy and going, "This is your meeting. I don't know, man, I'm hung over."
It plays really well into Mary stepping aside for Billy, letting him assume that place as the "older brother" in this found family.
It's funny because we see that sometimes in family dynamics, right? When the oldest leaves for college or is ready to move on with their life, they look back at the siblings at home and go, "This is your territory now. I give this to you. And I'll stay out of it." She's not quite there yet. I think she feels a little bit of turmoil and guilt [about] leaving the family. Can she trust the family in Billy's hands? At the same time, she needs Billy to let her go.
Mary spends much of the film setting up a path toward college that could take her away from the rest of the family. Would that be something you'd be excited to explore with Mary in the future of the DC Universe?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, Mary had her own comic run at one point, and it was a bit of a Nancy Drew thing, where she was solving mysteries and saving people and riding giant moths. I love that cover art. It's just crazy. She's on this like massive -- I thought it was a butterfly, but I think it's a moth because it's fuzzy. It's so cool. I'd love to see her go to college. As much as I say that over and over and over again, I'm like, "God, let's go to school. You worked so hard for it." I think the tough thing with Mary is her identity has been so wrapped up in her family.
She didn't have anything when she was a foster kid. She didn't have a family. Now she does have family. Billy and Mary are a massive parallel, story-wise. We see that a lot when Mary talks to Billy because she knows what he's going through because she's gone through it. So to see Mary be able to grow and leave that family unit, I think, is the obvious next step for her. It feels that she's a little bit in limbo. She's in that age range where she doesn't know what she wants to do next. But she can feel the angst that it's not here. She's done this already. She needs new experiences.
I am really curious about what it would be like for her to leave that unit, go to college, be around people her own age, and not have the security and the safety of that home. I think she's had so much growth in herself as a person being in a secure foster care situation, so I wonder what would happen for her. I worry that past trauma might come up and maybe something she didn't deal with when she was a kid in the foster system once she leaves the family... My whole thing is, I think maybe if she's with other kids her age, she's not in the family where she's always needed. What happens to Mary when she doesn't feel needed? Would she start leaning more into the superhero side of things [to] feel needed? She's making a difference and caring for people. How is she juggling superhero stuff with their studies?
Since the film has come out, we can talk about Wonder Woman. What was it like on set when Gal Gadot stepped onto the scene?
[Laughing] I mean, I technically still have not met her because we [filmed] separately. So Gal and I have never spoken to each other. I've never seen her in person. I think when I eventually do, I'll feel bad because I'll probably be like, "Hi, we were in a movie together!"
Having her suit on set was incredible. When I read the script and saw that we were going to get to have her in the movie, I was like, "Yeah -- we're just a couple of kids in this movie." Now even as adults, there's still that heart of a child. So it's like, "Really, we get like an adult superhero who's got it like figured out! Us Philly Fiascos, we get Wonder Woman?"
Even in these magically enhanced adult bodies, the entire Shazam family would be so excited to have a grown-up in the room.
Exactly.
On top of playing Mary, you also got the chance to write her as part of Shazam! Fury of the Gods Special: Shazamily Matters. What was that experience like?
Well, we finished shooting Shazam, and then DC asked us to write a comic for each of our characters, and I was terrified because I read comics. I love comics. So whenever you love something, it can be a little intimidating. You go, "How in the world could I make something like that?" Right? I just had never operated in storytelling within that format. But I thought, "Okay, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Also, how cool to get to tell a story about Mary! What would I want to see what adventure would I want to see her go on?" I feel like I missed an opportunity, though. I have another story I want to tell so badly.
But I love this one because it's Mary being stressed out. I put her in a situation purely to stress her out because stressed Mary's just Mary. I was like, "What kind of Tom and Jerry dynamic where she is just trying to do everything?" She's trying to give Darla the best birthday gift in the whole wide world. And she doesn't have the time to do it because she's dog walking and doing all this stuff. But a dinosaur ruins it, and she's chasing after this thing. I love dinosaurs. So I was like, "I'm gonna find a way to have a dinosaur in this comic." My dad did the animation for it, which was so special to have a family situation right there.
With Mary off in college, are there any dream characters you'd love to see her run into?
I feel like it would be fun to see her work alongside Batman because he's a detective. I think it'd be really fun for her to have a plucky Robin moment, where she's like, "I'm here, and I'm gonna help you out!" Or maybe just pretending that she doesn't have a human form and being like, "Yes, I'm the superhero. I'm here to tag team this situation, and I've got the powers that you don't. I'll be the brute that moves things and runs and does whatnot."
I think I really want to pair up with Batman because I watched Batman: The Animated Series, so I imagine even if it wasn't like an animated series, it would be so cool to get to be in that universe. Both of them have a little bit of a grumpy emo side. Batman and Mary, maybe they would just be the two of them being like, "Are you serious? Okay. okay, what is this?" Then she's like, "I actually have an exam. Alright, you're on your own," and he's going to really need [her] to fly. He's like, "I got gadgets, actually. Never mind, be a kid, go to college." [Laugh]
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters now.
