After years of languishing in development hell, Shazam! is finally filming, with Zachary Levi playing the DC Extended Universe version of the World's Mightiest Mortal, formerly known as Captain Marvel. Principal photography kicked off late last month, but it remains to be seen when we'll finally get a look at Levi wearing the Shazam costume. However, for those of you wanting an idea of what the costume will look like in the upcoming DC movie, director David F. Sandberg revealed that it will look somewhat similar to what the superhero wore in the 2014 animated movie Justice League: War, as seen above. Sandberg said:
Here's something though: The suit has some similarities to his look in Justice League: War. Once pics have been released I can tell you more about where the inspirations came from and why certain choices were made.
When a Shazam fan recently speculated on Reddit that a Shazam! costume reveal might come at the end of February to coincide with the character's anniversary (Captain Marvel debuted in Whiz Comics #2, which was released in February 1940), Sandberg responded that the reveal will not be linked to that. However, thanks to this new piece of information, now we have a little more information to work off of regarding how the Shazam costume will look like beyond it being red and having a lightning bolt on the chest. Fan artists, do your thing!
Although Justice League: War adapted writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee's Justice League arc that opened the New 52 reboot, the movie decided to use Shazam as one of the founding Justice Leaguers rather than Aquaman (Arthur Curry debuted a year later in Justice League: Throne of Atlantis). Voiced by Sean Astin, Shazam joined Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern in repelling Darkseid's invasion. Arguably the biggest difference between Shazam's costume in the movie and the traditional Captain Marvel costume is the hood, which was a carryover over from Shazam's New 52 reintroduction (which was also written by Johns). The Shazam! movie is incorporating several notable elements from Shazam's New 52 stories, like Billy Batson living with a foster family and the look of the Wizard who gives him his powers, so it's not terribly surprising to learn that Shazam's cinematic costume is partly inspired by that era.
Shazam was originally supposed to battle Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, but with the Kahndaqian anti-hero now being saved for his own movie, the Big Red Cheese will instead battle Doctor Sivana for his DCEU debut. Along with Zachary Levi portraying the eponymous hero, Shazam!'s cast includes Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Mark Strong as Sivana, Ron Cephas Jones as The Wizard (also named Shazam), Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Euegen Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley.
Shazam! will work its magic in theaters on April 5, 2019. To learn about what else the DCEU has in store, head to our DC movies guide.
