There is still quite a bit of time left before we get to see Shazam! in the theatres but San Diego Comic-Con has given us quite the first look at how the movie is going to be. Most of the people have really loved the trailer of the movie even more than Aquaman. It will be the first DC movie actually take on the fun light-hearted tone throughout the entire feature. What is even funnier is that we are going to see two Captain Marvel movies within 2 months!
The MCU is going to put out their first female lead Superhero movie next year, and the very next month, DC is going to put out a Superhero movie that actually had the same name. Well, what is great is that name, “Captain Marvel” will actually have some sort of reference in the Shazam! movie. Director David F. Sandberg has confirmed that Captain Marvel will not be directly used in the movie, but it will surely be referenced.
Sandberg talked to Entertainment Weekly that they may have snuck in a reference to Shazam’s history as Captain Marvel as well. He said:
“Let’s just say we’re going to have a bit of fun with that in the movie. But he’s basically known as Shazam, which makes sense because of the confusion.”
Well given the amazing history of why Captain Marvel was actually changed to Shazam, it is great to know that it will directly be referenced in the movie. For those of you who don’t know, Shazam was originally called Captain Marvel and was created for Fawcett Comics in by Bill Parker and CC Beck in 1939. As seen in the movie, a little boy named Billy Batson was actually chosen by an Ancient Wizard named Shazam and gains the power to transform into the heroic Captain Marvel.
A time came when Captain Marvel actually became even popular than Superman himself and they sold a whole lot of comics with the Superhero. But the problems for the hero began back in 1953 as Fawcett had to cease publication due to the copyright lawsuit filed by DC Comics which claimed that the character was actually a rip off of Superman. So after that, there was no publication by the name of Captain Marvel until DC Comics licensed Captain Marvel for publication and by 1991 had purchased the rights to Captain Marvel and his entire “Marvel Family” which were the characters related to Billy were introduced in the DC Universe.
The new problem now began here was that in the meanwhile when there was no publication for Captain Marvel, Marvel Comics actually came up with their own version of the hero and trademarked him. So they were already publishing comics with the Captain Marvel comics which were about the Kree hero Mar-Vell.
So, DC Comics had to come up with something new, and they rebranded the books featuring Captain Marvel with a title using the word “Shazam.” DC went forward with a reboot in 2011 with the whole New 52 storyline, and that is when they decided to streamline things and began calling the hero Shazam and referring the being who granted Billy his powers as simply by the Wizard.
Shazam! is going to hit the theatres on April 5, 2019, and here’s the official Synopsis:
“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).”
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