Fridge / SHAZAM! (2019)

Fridge Brilliance:

• The Shazam suit is covered with gold accessories. Gold is a very good conductor of electricity.
• How can you get a hint that Billy's memories of his mom aren't entirely reliable? The filtering on that memory is extremely bright. When we see most scenes in the movie that play in reality, it is a bit of a blue or grey tone, and when Billy's mom recounts that memory to him with what really happened, the scene takes on that color. It also makes sense since as a 4-year-old child, Billy wouldn't really recognize the stress and anger his mother was going through (she was also visibly red-eyed from crying) and his young mind would reimagine the memory as something more cheerful.
• Early on in the film, Billy's social worker states that he's better off not hunting high-and-low for a mother who never came for him. At that moment, it can be assumed to be a statement which seems reasonable but unaware of a heartwarming truth which isn't cleared up for the audience yet. Hold your butts till the Wham Episode later on...
• Envy is a short, hunched-over bald figure with pointy ears, a big head, and nasty teeth. He basically looks like a more monstrous version of the comic version of Sivana.
• Billy manages to outsmart and play Envy to defeat Sivana. The Wisdom of Solomon was likely very useful in doing so.
• Bordering on Stealth Pun, while Freddy trains Billy/Shazam, we hear "Don't Stop me Now". Who's that song by? Queen, with lead vocals and piano by Freddie Mercury (who also wrote the song). And what was one of Shazam's powers? The speed of Mercury. Also counts as Foreshadowing that Freddy would also gain the powers of Shazam.
• During the climax, Darla is captured by Lust. This may not have been intentional, but it's rather fitting that Darla (who is innocent and quite caring towards others) is captured by her opposite.
• In the boardroom scene, when Sivana calmly talks down to his father on what true power is, pay careful attention to the following sequence of sins who respond to him. Envy (who resents anyone stronger than him) warns Sivana "There is one more powerful." Pride (who cannot stand to have anyone be better than him) alerts Sivana that "The wizard found his champion." Wrath (who shows no mercy) instructs "Kill the Champion before he learns his true potential." Each Sin correlates with the way in which they best tempt Sivana to listen to them.
• The superpowers mainly used by the kids' Shazam forms, and the role they play, in the finale, match their personalities, backstories or main character trait:
  • The Wisdom of Solomon. Billy's introductory scene also has him outwitting cops, and he's managed to take care of himself for a long time, as well as done "detective work" for years. (He has courage and stamina too, to keep searching for his mother for so long)
  • The Strength of Hercules. Pedro is somewhat standoff-ish, and uses weights, trying to increase his strength; not only does his Shazam form interact least with the rest of the family, but he also uses his strength to hold up the Ferris Wheel.
  • The Stamina of Atlas. Mary is harder to decipher, but one interpretation could be that she is more or less "the rock" of the family, always looking out for her siblings, and dealing with her own issues as much as she can. Therefore, come the final battle, she continually grapples with one of the Sins, holding it down and tanking its attacks. She also counts as having the Wisdom of Solomon due to her college degree, and possibly her perceptiveness in working out Shazam!Billy's identity.
  • The Power of Zeus. Eugene loves video games; he uses the lightning, taking advantage of the power that is most like a video-game attack.
  • The Courage of Achilles. Freddy's use of flight is more or less a given. See: his dialogue, character arc, etc. Also, the obvious connection of Freddy's leg and the myth of Achilles' heel.
    • One name for Achilles was Podarkes ("swift-footed"), which came from a myth where he had the wings of Arke the Greek god given to him. The foot motif and Freddy gaining the ability to fly makes him well-suited for Achilles.
  • The Speed of Mercury. Darla was friendly, well-meaning, talkative, and immediately runs to meet her family members every time she encounters them; she uses superspeed to save individual people from the sins, rather than fighting anyone. Also, as the youngest and smallest of the six kids, Darla is The Runt at the End; Mercury (the planet named after the God) also has this role within the planets orbiting our Sun since it's much smaller than all other planets. ^note Though Pluto is smaller, it is not considered a planet (anymore) so doesn't count
  • This also works with Black Adam/Teth-Adam, and a forgotten part of Shazam/Captain Marvel lore, Oggar the Accursed. In the original comics Shazam was named Shazamo for a short time in his history, because he had Oggar as both his apprentice, and another hero/god to power his chosen champion. Oggar began to believe he was better than mortals because of his power, and challenged the Wizard over this. Oggar lost, and was stricken from history, just like Adam. Unlike Oggar however, Teth Adam would eventually regain his original heroic outlook, even if tainted by the era he originally lived in.
• Who's the best foil for an age-shifting Kid Hero who's Wise Beyond His Years? A petty Psychopathic Man Child who refuses to move beyond slights received when he was young. In a dark way, Sivana represents the logical conclusion of Freddie's warning to Billy.
  • This is accentuated in the mall when the two briefly have a standoff in the toy shop. Sivana is framed with the sign for "Boys' Costumes" right behind him. Because that's what both of them are at that point. Children wearing costumes. Neither of them have grown beyond one event from their childhood and both are using gifts given to them selfishly as a result.
  • They are also foils in terms of backstory. Sivana came from a background of great privilege, yet was stuck with an abusive and demeaning family that pushed him towards revenge rather than focusing on his own merits, while Billy came from poverty and abandonment but got many chances to have a loving family, that he rejected in favor of an ultimately nonexistant ideal.
• The Numerological Motif have a great deal of hidden meaning:
  • The number 7 is the symbol for God. Seven symbols repeated seven times opens a doorway to a dimension housing a figure with God-like powers and protector of the Seven Realms is made.
  • In the Bible, 6 is the number used to represent sin and imperfection. Shazam is powered by six legendary individuals, and there are six members of the Shazam family (a seventh is mentioned but is set to get his own film). This also represent the Humans Are Flawed angle - no matter how powerful, no one is perfect or can do things alone.
    • Billy gains five superpowers, Shock and Awe, Super-Speed, Super-Strength, Nigh-Invulnerable and Flight. But he also has a sixth: his humanity.
  • Sivana stands out as having 8 as his personal number (he wields a magic 8-ball and his alliance with the 7 Deadly Sins makes the group a total of 8). In Orthodox Christianity, despair is classified as the eighth deadly sin, which fits Sivana since he went through a Break the Cutie/Despair Event Horizon in his childhood thanks to the Wizard's summoning.
    • It could also be that he considers himself above the wizard Shazam, and thus higher than seven.
• In relation to the above, Billy shows off the Seven Heavenly Virtues at some point in the film:
  • Diligence - he is loyal to his mother and is determined to find her. He develops a new loyalty to his foster-siblings.
  • Kindness - he does his best to get along with his foster-siblings, and stands up for them when they are being bullied.
  • Humility - he initially refuses the Wizard's offer to be his champion, saying himself he is not pure enough to qualify (though he also hold his own affairs as important to him).
  • Patience - he is able to forgive his mother for her treatment of him and move on, in contrast to Thad who slaughtered his family as soon as he got his hands on the means to do so.
  • Temperance - While the power goes go to his head after some time, he eventually becomes more responsible with it.
  • Charity - He is more than willing to share his power with his siblings, in contrast to Sivana who wants to add Billy's power to his own.
  • Chastity - He is never tempted by the Sins, as shown with that prank with the eye at the end of the final battle. Of course, he'd seen how gross it was to have a demon orb in his head.
  • In contrast to Sivana representing the eighth deadly sin, despair (as mentioned above), Billy represents hope, the eighth heavenly virtue. He is the Wizard's last hope at getting a good champion.
• In the final, battle, Billy battles Sivana, while Freddy primarily confronts Pride since both primarily use flight, and Mary is primarily busy battling Sloth (the other three face the other sins randomly). Billy and Sivana represent the clash between hope and despair (as above), while Freddy is confronting his ego issues and Mary is struggling with apathy and indecision.
• After the New 52 changed the superhero's name from Captain Marvel to Shazam, his powers were adapted so the magic word would only transform Billy if he specifically intended to. This was done for obvious reasons, as it enabled him to say "I am Shazam" without giving away his secret identity immediately after. In this film, even casually saying "Shazam" in a sentence triggers the transformation. In other words, Shazam can't even introduce himself without unwillingly morphing back into a 14-year old boy. This may explain why he goes the entire film without referring to himself as such, instead resorting to increasingly more bewildering nicknames. Also, it's possible that Billy can learn to control the transformation word in such a manner, but since this is only his first few days with the power and is still learning to use them, he hasn't mastered it yet.
• Each of the kids' Shazam forms are color coded for convenience. A subtle hint of foreshadowing, is the kids primarily wearing the same colors as their super suits: Billy and Mary in red, Eugene in grey, Freddy in blue, Pedro in green, and Darla in purple.
• Trinkets:
  • There's an interesting bit of visual symbolism in Billy and Sivana's personal trinkets, the compass keychain and Magic 8-ball respectively. Both are small black orbs associated with finding a desired outcome. One shows you what you need, while the other just tells you what you want to hear at best.
  • The compass fits Billy very well, as a compass requires that you know the place you want to go for it to be of any use. Obviously, it highlights his helplessness in finding his family since he doesn't even know where they are, but him giving it back to his mother also shows Character Development; at that point, he knows exactly where he's supposed to be (with a family that loves him, rather than his blood family) and doesn't need the compass to help him find it. However, he bestows it to his mother, recognizing she needs help finding her way in life.
• Freddy doesn't want invisibility not just because he feels it's more associated with villains but because he already feels ignored and invisible to most people, so it would be a redundant power.
• When Freddy and Billy play Mortal Kombat X pay attention to their character selection. Billy picks Raiden, the Thunder God, mirroring his powers. Freddy picks Johnny Cage, a cocky movie star, which appeals to Freddy's desire for attention.
  • It's also a real life reference: not only had NetherRealm Studios developed a DC fighting game featuring Captain Marvel, but he also debuted as a Fighting Game playable character in Midway's last game before its closure: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
• The use of "Do You See What I See?" in the opening scenes may just seem like Soundtrack Dissonance, but consider: Everything that happens after Thad gets sent back is because he's seen something that no one else has seen.
  • The song also has the line "Listen to what I say" (spoken by a king, no less). Thad, who wants nothing more than to be powerful, is trying to tell his father and brother what just happened, but they won't listen to him.
  • It's also foretelling the coming of a powerful child.
  • And it's not dissonant at all if you remember that particular version of the song being used to incredibly creepy effect in Gremlins.
• When Mary uses the power of Shazam, she is portrayed by a different actress despite her usual actress already being an adult in real life and visibly older than the other kids. This is probably because all the Marvel/Shazam Family actors were cast to match Zachary Levi's age, late 30s to early 40s, while Grace Fulton is only in her early 20s.
  • Another explanation lies in what the Wizard told Billy; He said Billy's transformed state would be him at his "full potential", meaning the best he could possibly be, in terms of both ability and appearance. This would also hold true for Mary.
• Throughout the film before the big reveal, you were probably wondering why despite all the effort Billy underwent to look for his mother (his notebook has over 70 female individuals with the same surname as him), his mother never seemed to bother filing a missing person's case with his name from her end, which would have immediately got him found and returned. It is a sign that the abandonment was not accidental.
• During the climax, Captain Marvel/Shazam reverted to Billy in the middle of a crowd yet no one noticed. Why? Because he was engulfed in smoke. Also, the transformation is triggered by him being struck by a bolt of lightning, which would dazzle the eyes (and camera cell phones) of everyone looking at him. And they don't notice the 14-year-old boy who took his place, because with Zap-tain America standing there, who's going to notice the presence or absence of one average teenager?
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames actually makes sense here, as the word Shazam itself is the transformation phrase.
  • Not to mention as far as anybody knew, Shazam was only the Wizard's name. There was no indication that his champions would share it.
• Billy/Shazam was unable to hurt Wrath, who turned to smoke anytime he would have been hit. This is because you can't use wrath against Wrath. Pedro was able to block Wrath's shot and counter-attack, because he was only acting through defense.
• Why Billy called the Damsel out of Distress that defended herself from robbery a "grandma" despite the woman being in her 30's at most? It's not just because of Billy being a teenager but also because of his mother, who was 17 when she had him, so just entering her 20s the last time he saw her. So if a teenager barely older than him can be a mother, someone with double his age can be a grandma.
• The movie has a theme of people spending years desperately searching for something to the point of obsession and the tragic consequences of such.
  • Sivana searched for the power he had been denied as a child, and ended up possessed by evil monsters and mentally broken by it in the end.
  • The wizard Shazam was obsessed with finding someone "pure of heart" to pass on his power to, but his rigorous standards meant that he ended up rejecting everyone he came across, which ultimately led to Sivana's villainy and the sins being able to escape because his powers had grown weak over time.
  • Billy was so obsessed with finding his biological mother that he rejected any attempts to bond with his foster families for years, but his mother left him because she felt that a foster family could give him a better life than a scared abandoned 17-year old girl could.
  • Sivana never gets over it, Shazam gives up only by necessity, but Billy gives up on his goal willingly once he realizes the consequences of his actions.
• There is also the theme of being fixated on a goal/ideal that becomes detrimental to the person despite already having something good or better than said goal.
  • Sivana is a rich, successful doctor/psychiatrist all on his own merit but his resentment and need to prove himself to his father and brother and the wizard Shazam eclipse that.
  • The wizard Shazam had encountered many candidates who could have been trained into excellent champions but he rejected them all because they did not match his standards of perfection.
  • Billy had several opportunities to be happily adopted by families who would have gladly taken him in but he ran away from them because he was chasing after the idealized memory of his missing mother.
• Billy challenges Freddy to name one cool sidekick. In this universe, there was still just two sidekicks when he said that: One is dead and the other is insane.
• Lex Luthor is typically depicted as tall and well-dressed with chiseled features, but in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice he was short and goofy-looking with twitchy mannerisms. Contrast that with Dr Sivana, who underwent both Adaptational Attractiveness and Adaptational Badass.
• Freddy telling some robbers to shoot Shazam in the face is most likely poetic vengeance for losing his prized Superman bullet. Now Billy has compensated him with interest!
• The Seven Deadly Sins possess Sivana through the Eye of Sin. A magic Glass Eye makes sense to use as a talisman:
  • Firstly, it allows the Sins to look through and see what its user sees.
    • Since the eye was in the Wizard's possession for years, he may have used it to see the faults that lie within all the people he tests. He didn't have it when he chose Billy, but that just means he has to take a leap of faith.
  • Secondly, it embodies the Jade-Colored Glasses trope. The Sins chose Sivana because he was already cynical enough not to bother about any kind of goodness, or care that he was being used by them.
• Billy Batson has had several hometowns throughout publication history, with Philadelphia being the most recent. But there are a few other reasons why Philly, rather than Fawcett City or San Francisco, happens to be the perfect setting for this movie:
  • Philly is famously known as the City of Brotherly Love. Billy's major arc involves learning to be a loving brother to his foster siblings.
  • Philadelphia's name comes from the Greek language, and another one of its (less well-known) nicknames is the Athens of America. Several of Shazam's gifts come from Greek figures.
  • Benjamin Franklin's legendary kite experiment (wherein he discovered how to conduct electricity) took place in Philadelphia. The first power Billy discovers is Shock and Awe.
• Why are the members of the Shazam Family an Instant Expert? They already saw the resident superhero in action, so they would know what they can do once they get the powers. It's also notable that they all stick to one superpower, and the hardest one to master, flight, is used by Freddy, who had the most experience with the powers being a coach for Shazam.
  • He also has the most experience with being conscious of his movement, having had to relearn to walk at some point.
• The Wizard crumbles to dust the moment he passes on his power. Rather abrupt, but he's so old that magic was the only thing keeping him alive.
  • This lends more weight to his "You, Billy Batson, are all I have." statement - he was almost out of time, Billy is the best he could find then and there.
• Mr Mind can be seen in the glass chamber when child and later adult Sivana arrive at the Rock of Eternity. When Billy is summoned to the rock, the glass chamber is broken. Looks like the battle with the Sins got the it broken, or alternately it was an opportunity Mr Mind took to break out. Either way, Mr Mind got free by Dr Sivana’s doing. So it’s no wonder Mr Mind would take the trouble to seek him out in prison.
• The families in the film make an impact on the protagonists:
  • Thaddeus Sivana’s family is successful, but contemptuous and bullying, which shape Thad into a successful but resentful and selfish scientist.
  • The Vasquezs are open-hearted and decent people, who took in children and gave them devotion and support, which defines the Marvel family as people who share their powers and use it to do good.
  • And finally, Billy Batson’s mother is in the middle between those two: she’s half-hearted and confused and looking for direction, which is how Billy spends most of the film.
  • The Breyer Brothers are a bunch of jerks, who serve as a parallel to Billy (what he's turning into) and Sivana (what they could become).
  • The Wizard has no family, and is alone. This means he has to rely on himself, which ultimately dooms him as he has turned out obsessed with finding a good man, paranoid about finding the right person, and of course having high standards that cause him to make terrible judgments.
• By this film, the Justice League has now become popular enough to have their own toys, newspapers and memorabilia. With this in mind, the Marvel Family that appears takes on traits from the Justice League:
  • Freddy is a magical Superman, most attuned to flight
  • Darla is a magical Flash, empowered with super speed
  • Eugene is a magical Cyborg, empowered with electricity that can affect machines (in the comics he actually had the power to control machines)
  • Pedro is a magical Aquaman, clad in green and wearing a beard and who is pretty much the strongest member in the group
  • Mary is a magical Wonder Woman.
  • And Billy is Batman, bringing the team together because he can't do it on his own, and at his best when he tries to be a Guile Hero and outsmart his enemies instead of relying on his Flying Brick powers.
• Billy Batson is the fourth DCEU hero to rely on his mother after Clark (Martha), Diana (Hippolyta) and Arthur (Atlanna). Too bad she couldn’t be reliable as the other three were.
• Wonder Woman going out with Shazam in the credits is a joke, but when you consider that he’s got the power of gods and she’s a goddess herself (the only goddess on the Justice League), it makes sense that she’d be drawn to him.
• Freddy never seems to suggest "Captain Marvel" as a name. It's generally given that DC and Marvel mutually exist as fictional works in each others' universes, Freddy's aware of Spider-Man and Captain America so he'd also be aware of Carol Danvers and that the name's taken by a fictional character.
• According to Arabian myth, Solomon had the power to control demons. This could explain how the Wisdom of Solomon was able to seal away the Seven Deadly Sins.
• Much is made of how Billy fails to manifest The Wisdom of Solomon or The Courage of Achilles throughout the film, being mostly a selfish Idiot Hero and Dirty Coward. But look at how he learns about his powers: Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability need only be tested, he figures out Shock and Awe pretty quick, but Flight takes a Die or Fly situation to unlock, as does his ability to teleport to and from the Rock of Eternity. Wisdom and Courage would be even more esoteric and harder to access, especially for a confused, scared, distant, emotionally damaged teenager. Moreover, The Wisdom of Solomon is on display several time as flashes of brilliant inspiration, and after Billy's confronted his mother and learned Sivana has his real family hostage, The Courage of Achilles is on full display.
• The only Sins that communicate directly with Sivana are Envy, Wrath and Pride. Envy and Wrath both fit Sivana as The Resenter, while Pride combines both his Self-Made Man status (becoming a Dr and tracing the Rock of Eternity by himself) and his Inferiority Superiority Complex (his need to prove himself as worthy).
  • When Sivana returns to the Rock of Eternity, Greed and Gluttony are the first seen to talk to Sivana, showcasing his increased desire for power.
  • Lust and Sloth have one line of dialogue, when Sivana forces Billy to give up his power at the Rock. One showcases Sivana's pleasure at tormenting Billy, the other tries to tempt Billy into not caring and going along with Sivana.
  • One YouTube comment also points out that after Sivana and the Sins massacre the boardroom, Pride is standing on the opposite side as the others. He's too arrogant and vain to even stand next to his kin.
• Freddy in particular aging-up to adult form in this version gives an explanation for why he continues to live with restricted mobility and likely chronic pain in everyday life rather than keeping his powers switched-on all the time, something that's bothered fans since his creation. What would happen if 14-year-old Freddy Freeman disappeared with no explanation except a superhero who looks to be around 30 claiming to be him? Victor and Rosa would be disqualified as foster parents at a minimum, if not tried, jailed and possibly in Rosa's case deported, and the family broken up with Darla in particular, accustomed to being treated as the baby of the family, cast into a foster-care system where few people want a black girl rapidly approaching her middle-school years. Freddy does it for his family.
• Thad wanting the Champion's powers when he already has the Sins seems like Greed at work, but it's not an unreasonable demand when you consider that the Champion's powers are what kept the Sins trapped. The Wizard warned him that he was being used, so he'd rationalize taking the Champion's powers to use them against his demonic allies.
• The Seven Deadly Sins take the form of smoke. Smoke clouds vision and perception, so it's a fitting form to give to a villain who refuses to see any viewpoint but his own.
• Billy states he thought Lust (a gargoyle with a long phallic tongue) would be much easier on the eyes, referencing how Lust personified is often depicted as a succubus in media. But a succubus causes lust, she isn't the distilled version of what lust makes someone. Otherwise, Gluttony would be made of food instead of a fat gargoyle.
• Lust goes after Santa Claus in the final battle. Santa is a major symbol of childhood and innocence, and thus is a fitting target for a demon associated with rape and defilement.
• The events of Black Adam (2022) put the Wizard's actions in this film in context:
  • In the comics, Billy Batson was chosen because despite his hardship and tragedy he endured he was still a virtuous boy. That applies to the first champion Hurut, who was a slave in Kahndaq who stood against his oppressors. So the Wizard was choosing people based on their endurance or stamina of life, working on Incorruptible Pure Pureness, which sadly for the Wizard doesn't always work out, as seen when he chose Thad, someone who had a similar background of abuse but was left too vulnerable to the Sins.
  • Sivana believed that after so many candidates (and rejects) the Wizard went through, he would probably have forgotten Sivana after 45 years, since was just a boy then. However, the Wizard remembers him as well as if it were yesterday. Because from the Wizard's viewpoint, that day showed him that even a child could be tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins, that the traditional Children Are Innocent rule of a child being pure of heart couldn't apply any more for selecting a Champion.
  • The characters driven by specific sins have it affect their appearances: Sivana is as bald as Envy, the proud Ishmael in his SABBAC form bears an imperious demonic look, and Teth-Adam is as aggressive and brawny as Wrath (though he eventually overcomes his sin and becomes heroic enough).

Fridge Horror:

• Secret identities:
  • The Shazam family basically all share the same secret identity and only really have increased ages to conceal who they really are, with their age differences from each other being relatively the same across both forms. Of the two villains Shazam is lined up to confront next, Mister Mind is a mastermind who would be able to spot this pattern easily, and Black Adam knows how the powers work and would thus already be looking for a group of kids/young adults with the same profiles as the family. Ultimate point: because the Shazam family are dead ringers for the Vasquez kids in the eyes of these villains, Billy sharing powers with his siblings has essentially painted a giant target on Victor and Rosa's heads.
  • Made worse by the fact that if anything happens to those two, the family would likely be split up and sent to new homes, giving the villains opportunities to pick them off one by one.
  • It's even worse than that. In the first stinger scene, Mister Mind visited the imprisoned Dr. Sivana to recruit him. Sivana already knew the real identities of the Shazam family, not to mention where they live, and there's nothing to stop him from spilling the beans to Mister Mind or other bad guys who wanted a piece of the Shazam family.
• The old wizard has scarred and traumatized thousands of kids around the world because he doesn't erase the unworthy children's memories when sending them back to earth. Those people (now adults) will need serious therapy. Some will probably never function properly in society ever again due to their encounter with the wizard. What's worse is that the old man didn't care about his actions.
  • Worse, it's possible that Sivana wasn't the only one who had a post-dismissal freakout under circumstances where it caused a dangerous distraction.
  • Now imagine if there are more rejects out there that start salivating for vengeance and unholy power like Sivanna...
  • Sivana was no doubt counting on exactly that reaction to find candidates in his shared delusion research. The Wizard actually unwittingly gave Sivana the key to finding his way back to the Rock of Eternity.
• The flashback to Billy's mother abandoning him was set in 2008, which was the year of the U.S. recession. Meaning even if she tried raising him, she would have had a very hard time nonetheless. Alternatively, she's already reeling from the effects of the recession, which lead her to do what she did.
• The scene when Sivana kidnaps Freddy. He slams him against a wall and states that Freddy is about to tell him everything... and the scene cuts away. Next time we see Freddy, he's taken Sivana to the house. Seeing how protective he was of his family, it's unlikely he'd lead a supervillain directly to them without a serious amount of pressure.
• The siblings opened quite a few doors in their attempt to escape the Rock of Eternity. Anyone familiar with Shazam's rogues gallery would recognise some of the villains who got brief cameos. Assuming those doors hadn't been opened in a while, they've now been alerted to the fact that there's been some changes going on and will probably be curious as to how they can exploit this...
  • Overlaps with Fridge Brilliance. The Rock of Eternity stands outside the Orrery of Worlds. There is only one. The only reason the kids didn't run into earlier versions of themselves was how inconvenient to the narrative it would be.
  • According to the Wizard, his previous champion released the Seven Deadly Sins upon the world. They might have done something to the humans to ensure that the Wizard would not be able to find a champion he considers worthy.
• How much more abuse did Thad take from his dad and brother in the years from the prologue to the present? They already abused him heavily, and now that he caused the car crash that took Mr. Sivana's legs, they must have dialed that abuse even further. And considering how old Thad and his brother look compared to the prologue, that must have been decades of domestic hell.

Fridge Logic:

On the headscratchers page.