Shazam! Star Zachary Levi Talks About How The Film Connects To DCU
While DC fans are getting ready for Aquaman hitting theaters this week, it won’t be long until another DC superhero lands on the big screen.
Zachary Levi’s Shazam will debut in April with Shazam!, morphing Billy Batson into one of the prime heroes in the franchise. The film will follow in the wake of the events of Justice League, it will do well in standing on its own, according to Levi.
Levi has previously explained that the film will reference other heroes, but that it will be easily accessible for those who haven’t been following DC films.
“Our movie takes place very squarely in the DC Universe. In fact, I would argue that we’re kind of the most self-aware of it because the movies that we all watch — I mean, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman — they’re all basically documentaries in their world,” Levi told Entertainment Tonight. “These things, these are all real events that have happened. Batman and Superman fighting, Superman saving all of Metropolis, whilst simultaneously destroying the entire city — that all really happened.”
We don’t know much about the film’s plot yet, except that it will adapt elements of Shazam’s New 52 origin while paying homage to classic films like Tom Hanks’ Big and Reeves’ Superman.
Here’s the synopsis released by New Line Cinema:
“We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Zachary Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou). Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).”
