The DC Universe is in kind of a weird place at the moment. Justice League was supposed to be great to keep the movies in motion frequently, but even after being a step in the right direction, the movie did not do as well WB would have liked at the Box Office and even with the critics. It has made $656 Million at the worldwide Box office. It was also claimed to be better than Batman V Superman by the critics and the fans absolutely loved it.
Now the upcoming DC movie slate is not as clear as it was a while ago because there are going to be a lot of changes in the plans from now on. Till now, we only have confirmation for Aquaman, which is set to come out on December 21, 2018, Wonder Woman 2, coming out on November 1, 2019, Shazam!, coming out on April 5, 2019, Suicide Squad 2, in 2020 along with Flashpoint. Rest all the movies that are currently “under development” are The Batman, Man of Steel 2, Black Adam, Deathstroke, Joker and Harley Quinn, Batgirl, Nightwing, Justice League Dark, Gotham City Sirens, Green Lantern Corps and Cyborg but none of them have any sort of release dates confirmed just yet.
Clearly, WB are now looking to slow things down and focus more on the projects that are more important and popular among the fans. Let’s just hope that they get everything spot on from now on because they have sort of failed 4 times and only found Wonder Woman to be successful. Now, they will try to carry on that success with Aquaman and Shazam! as WB have now announced that the production on Shazam! has finally begun.
Shazam! is being directed by David F Sandberg, and is an origin story. Zachary Levi is going to play Shazam along with Asher Angel as Billy Batson (Shazam’s alter ego), and Mark Strong is playing the role of Super-Villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. Peter Safran who worked on the Annabelle and The Conjuring films, is serving as the producer to this film and is doing the same for DC’s upcoming Aquaman as well.
Earlier, it was suggested that Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam is going to be the main villain for the movie, but later on, things changed about that now as DJ will be getting his own movie where we will see the origin of Black Adam as well and how he rose to power, got corrupted and became the supervillain we now know of.
It would be really amazing if Black Adam appears in Shazam! towards the end to sort of build and set up the solo Black Adam movie and the Shazam sequel where we will get to see these two thunderous foes take on each other on the big screen.
Here’s the synopsis that has been released by WB for Shazam!:
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).
The other cast members of Shazam! include Jack Dylan Grazer (who also appeared in IT) as Billy’s best friend and ultimate superhero enthusiast, Freddy, part of the foster family that includes Eugene, played by Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat); Mary, played by Grace Fulton (Annabelle: Creation); Darla, played by Faithe Herman (This is Us); and Pedro, played by Jovan Armand (TV’s Hawaii Five-O). Cooper Andrews of The Walking Dead and Marta Milans (Killer Women) play foster parents, Victor and Rosa Vasquez, with Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us) as the Wizard.
The movie is set in the DC universe as we know of, but still is kind of its own thing taking up a fun family-centric and lighter tone.
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