Dwayne Johnson has been championing his Black Adam movie for years at this point, but DC Films has remained quiet on the supervillain’s foil until now. Zachary Levi, who funny enough plays a part in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, has been cast as Captain Marvel, or as he’s more prominently known these days after a few lawsuits: Shazam.
Shazam follows the story of young Billy Batson, who can turn into the superheroic adult by uttering the word “Shazam!” The magic word is an acronym of the names of various gods from which he derives his power — Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. Currently, there’s no word on who will play Batson, but Levi is a solid choice to play the purposefully corny Shazam. He just lacks the barrel-chested looks of the comic character. But is that really needed? Aside from Levi’s work in the Thor series, he was also part of the main ensemble in NBC’s Heroes Reborn miniseries, so he knows his way around superpowers.
Now when it comes to Black Adam and Dwayne Johnson, The Hollywood Reporter made it clear that he’ll have his own standalone movie, but that doesn’t rule out a cameo. Both the Shazam! and Black Adam movies are being developed concurrently and Shazam! expects a February 2018 start date for a 2019 release.
One interesting piece of trivia worth noting: Shazam was the most popular superhero of the ’40s, and even beat Batman and Superman to the big screen in 1941 with The Adventures of Captain Marvel. There’s probably some old timer out there who is a Cubs fan and a Shazam fanatic who is just loving life over the last few years.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)