Shazam Could Be The First Family DCEU Movie

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Following the billion-dollar success of Aquaman, all eyes within the DCEU are now turning towards Shazam! as yesterday (Wednesday 23rd January) a number of film websites released their set visit reports and we learned of exciting info.

From ideas to what the film will focus on to the suit and hinting towards old school family films, by what this set visit and interview with the cast and director David Sandberg I think it’s safe to say we should start getting excited what this film could be.

I have to say Paul Shirey of JoBlo.com does a fantastic job of laying everything out, so please check it out and his interviews with Sandberg, Mark Strong and Zachary Levi.

So what did we learn?

Firstly, Shazam! will indeed be in the wider DC Films Universe as Aquaman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman all exist and there will be nods to this throughout the film. No doubt coming from Jack Dylan Grazer’s Freddy Freeman, who is a superhero expert collecting superhero memorabilia, basically he’s going to be one of us.

In case you didn’t know the word SHAZAM is an acronym for the six immortal gods. S is for the wisdom of Solomon, H stands for the strength of Hercules, A means the stamina of Atlas, Z is the power of Zeus, A stands for the courage of Achilles and finally M is for the speed and flight of Mercury. This makes the magical word of SHAZAM!

Hopefully, this will be explained in the now important DCEU history lesson as Shirey revealed the film begins with a flashback to a young Dr. Thaddeus Sivana in the 1970 and we learn he’s a rich kid who gets bullied by his family.

We’ll also learn about The Wizard and the Rock of Eternity, as well as the Seven Deadly Sins, which were first teased in the recent TV spot. Additionally, it’ll be explained how and why Dr. Sivana’s eye is the way it is.

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Both his eye and the Seven Deadly Sins are important elements to the overall events of the film.

Strong spoke to why Dr. Sivana has an issue with Billy Batson and questions why Batson was chosen but not him.

“He can’t understand. He can’t understand that the Wizard has chosen this boy as his champion,” said Strong. “Because there was the opportunity there that he could be the champion of good but was rejected because he was considered not to be worthy.

“Yet, the wizard’s chosen a boy and he realizes that obviously that boy manifests himself into the man, the Zachary version of Shazam, and to him it’s a source of total incomprehension why this boy should have been chosen over. But, it just justifies him in his quest to unify the good force and bad force and be in control of all of it” Strong stated.

The Kingsman and Stardust stars performance of Dr. Sivana will be a villain that’s “cool and confident” with “a lot of villain swag” and it’ll be based on the Geoff John’s The New 52 run. It’s also been stated that as we learn more about him and his motivations, we as an audience could be rooting for him throughout moments of the film.

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Elsewhere, the story itself will also be based off John’s New 52 comic run and Sandberg has added elements from previous DC Comics tales and the original Fawcett Comics.

All three elements from Fawcett Comics to The New 52 will make up the costume as the filmmakers choosing specific elements from the different eras.

This commitment and nods to the comics make me like the suit even more.

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Returning to the film's story, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a young kid in Philadelphia going from different foster homes, believing his real family is out there. He’s finally placed into a new home greeted with a diverse group of kids all living together.

What got me really excited by the set visit is the fact the family has a supportive catchphrase “All Hands on Deck” and by Shirey’s tease is this is a saying we’ll hear later on in the film with the Shazam family, which will get the fans going mental.

Once Billy gets his powers he turns to Freddy to help to find out and learn his powers doing a bunch of tests and Freddy uploads them online making him a bit of an online celebrity.

Maybe this will also be a hint towards Freddy was indeed the kid filming Superman at the beginning of Justice League?

The big finale will be within a winter carnival, which will bring Dr. Sivana and a number of surprises (maybe the Seven Deadly Sins?) that will encapsulate the entirety of the story.

Finally, when talking to director Sandberg, the helmer explained what Shazam! will be leaning towards and even the studio explained it as “Big with superpowers” and they’ll be more references to the Penny Marshall directed classic.

Meanwhile, he also talked about the tone stating it won’t be a flat out comedy but it won’t be “dark and gritty.”

“It’s sort of a-Yeah, it’s a fun movie-like, it’s not like a pure comedy, because you still have those-touches some pretty dark subjects… I like to compare it to like ‘80s movies, like the Goonies and Ghostbusters and Back To The Future.”

This is highlighted by the film being set during the Christmas story and it was something Sandberg wanted for the film to highlight “a lot about family and Christmas time and this family holiday and it’s about like finding your family with these foster kids and everything.”

The thought behind the film leaning towards the 80s is a surprise because it says to me that we’re getting an old school family film, which is something I think cinema has been missing.
 

Hopefully, the film will get a PG rating instead of a PG-13 in the US and 12A rating in the UK. I know it’s a long shot but I’ll still have my fingers crossed.

Shazam! hits theatres 5th April 2019.