With Shazam scheduled to kick off principal photography in a few months, casting information for the World's Mightiest Mortal's movie has been rolling in over the last two months. As more child actors have been announced for Shazam, it's become clearer that this story will be partly inspired by the New 52 comics, where the orphaned Billy Batson was sent to live with a foster family. Now we've learned who will be taking care of these kids in the DCEU: The Walking Dead's Cooper Andrews.
According to Deadline, Cooper Andrews has been brought onto Shazam, thus adding another adult character into the mix, as Zachary Levi will be playing the previously-named Captain Marvel. Although Cooper's character wasn't identified, this individual will be the foster parent at the group home where Billy lives in the movie. Along with Andrews and Levi, Shazam's main cast includes Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi and Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña. Mark Strong is also in negotiations to play Doctor Sivana, but there's no word yet on if he's officially secured the main antagonist role.
Cooper Andrews debuted on The Walking Dead last year as Jerry, a member of the Kingdom who serves as Ezekiel's steward. Andrews' other TV credits include a recurring role on Halt and Catch Fire, as well as guest spots on Limitless and Hawaii 5-0. As for the big screen, Andrews popped up last year in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, but it's safe to say that Shazam will be his biggest cinematic appearance yet. In the New 52 Shazam storyline, Billy Batson and the other kids' foster parents are Victor and Rosa Vasquez, and while they weren't directly involved in Billy's first adventure as a superhero, perhaps those two (assuming Andrews' character isn't a single parent) will have a bigger role to play in the movie.
Although Shazam is expected to show how Billy Batson received his magical powers and becomes a superhero, no official plot details for the movie have been revealed yet. Originally the plan was for Shazam to battle Black Adam in this tale, but now Dwayne Johnson's iteration of the Kahndaqian anti-hero will instead be saved for his own standalone movie, and it's even been rumored that Black Adam will debut in Suicide Squad 2 before that. Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg is helming Shazam, and Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke are attached as the screenwriters.
Shazam doesn't have an officially assigned release date yet, though David F. Sandberg expects the masses will get to see it by April 2019. As we wait for more updates on this electrically-charged project, head over to our DC movies guide to see what else is coming up for the DCEU.
