After listening to fans online for months and months lament over the existence of this production, Warner Bros. Pictures through New Line revealed the first trailer for Shazam! today and, quite frankly, it was excellent. While there’s a more traditional origin story design to it – something that the previous DC films have not really done much of as they’ve opted to drop us into the middle of stories, it hits a lot of good stuff both in the human elements and the superhero elements.
And speaking anecdotally, it was fascinating showing this to my family in a group setting. My kids know the character as the goofy guy from Young Justice whereas my mother knows the character from the Shazam/Isis show from the 70’s. For me, he’ll always be Captain Whitebread from the Justice League run by Giffen and DeMatteis.
The film is set for an April 5th, 2019 release and is being directed by David F. Sandberg who had great success with Lights Out and Annabell: Creation, which made $303 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.
The cast includes Asher Angel and Zachary Levi as Billy Batson / Shazam, Mark Strong as Thaddeus Sivana, Ron Cephas Jones as the ancient wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vazquez, Marta Milans as Rosa Vazquez, David J. MacNeil as Mr. Bryer, and Lotta Losten.
The character of Billy Batson derives his powers by saying the phrase, “Shazam” which is an acronym of the ancient world gods and historical figures Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury, which them transforms him into the adult form.
The film is set in the DC universe but is avoiding the dark by going for a more fun, family-centric tone. Shazam was created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. Christopher Godsick, Jeffrey Chernov, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia serve as executive producers.
Plot Concept: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
