Shazam, formerly known as Captain Marvel (the dude version), will be the next film on the Warner Bros. slate to starting shooting as Billy Batson joins the DCEU.
Wonder Woman won the summer box office and Justice League is doing who even knows what at this point, but it does look like the DCEU may be pulling itself out of the slums right now. There is still hope on the horizon. While the biggest complaint that seems to circulate remains the levity of the DCEU’s tone, Wonder Woman delivered a compelling film that stayed optimistic the whole time. And while The Flash struggles to keep a director, it looks like a different superhero will be stepping in to be the funny guy around town.
I mean, neither DC Comics nor the Justice League are short of funny guys (or at least, guys who think they’re funny). From Green Lantern to Flash and all the way over to Booster Gold, I find Shazam to be the most entertaining because he’s actually a child.
By day, Shazam is a young boy named Billy Batson. But whenever he says “Shazam!”, a wizard grants him superhero powers and he turns into a fully-grown superhero comparable to Superman. He’s the kind of guy who says, “I got it,” but doesn’t actually got it.
Now, according to Shazam’s director David F. Sandberg, Shazam will be the next DCEU movie to start filming. Basically, he confirmed there’s a script and they’re going to shoot next.
But how do you shoot without actors, hmm? Obviously, rumors peg several different actors here and there, yet I haven’t heard a single child actor’s name. Though Sandberg admitted to playing with the origin story, I don’t understand how you can do it without a child. Billy Batson is a child and only his alter-ego is over five feet tall. It’s not like they’re going to shoot an entire film with him just as the alter ego portion, right?
You can hear the entire interview below:
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I don’t want to keep bringing this up, but honestly, the child actor will be as important as the superhero. Like, I wouldn’t mind if they take someone like Stranger Things‘ edgy little Finn Wolfhard and focus more on the story as Billy Batson, then hire a stunt guy to do the incredible stunt work as Shazam. If Goldberg wants to think out of the box, why not just go for it?