Ever since the Shazam! movie kicked off principal photography back in January, fans have been waiting to get an official picture of Zachary Levi in the Shazam costume. Sure there were set photos leaked of the actor suited up, but there's nothing like getting an image that has the proper lighting and cinematic feel to give us an idea of how a costume will look in the finalized movie. Well, Shazam! wrapped up shooting earlier this month, and while neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros have dropped an image of the DC Extended Universe's Shazam, Levi himself has taken it upon himself to provide the first look at his superhero character, only he's not posed the way we imagined.
Of all the ways I thought we might get our first look at Zachary Levi's Shazam, I was not expecting to see the World's Mightiest Mortal casually sipping a beverage. But hey, at this point, I'll take whatever I can get. As Levi noted in his Instagram post, this Shazam image comes from the 2018 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, which is going on this week. Given that Shazam is actually the adolescent Billy Batson who's transformed into a magically-powered adult, him taking a break to grab an extra large soda or juice is par for the course, particularly because Levi has described the movie as Tom Hanks' Big with superpowers.
As we previously saw with the leaked Shazam! set photos, the DCEU Shazam costume looks similar to the one the hero wore in the 2014 animated movie Justice League: War, which itself was based off the design of the hero's New 52 outfit. Director David F. Sandberg teased earlier this year that a photo was forthcoming, but on May 10, he revealed that plans had changed for some reason, and now there's no set timetable when an official picture will arrive. Now that Zachary Levi has uploaded this picture, ideally this will push DC and/or Warner Bros to finally release an official Shazam still relatively soon, though I also wouldn't be surprised if that's being saved for San Diego Comic-Con.
Along with Zachary Levi, Shazam!'s main cast includes Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Mark Strong as Doctor Thaddeus Sivana (the main antagonist), Ron Cephas Jones as the wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley. Although Shazam will obviously be the star of this movie, much like in the hero's New 52 origin story, it's rumored that the members of Billy Batson's adoptive family will also be Shazam-ified.
Shazam! will work its magic in theaters on April 5, 2019, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates about the superhero blockbuster. In the meantime, take a look through our DC movies guide to learn what other projects are in development for the DCEU.
