After a poor and directionless run of movies — Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League — it looks like Warner Bros and DC are finally starting to find their footing. Two-thirds of Wonder Woman is absolutely phenomenal and Aquaman turned out to be one heck of a sprawling high fantasy and fist-pumping adventure.
And it looks like Shazam! will continue DC’s fine form. Well, at the very least, we know that it’s going to be a film unlike anything we’ve seen come out of the DC live-action banner in recent memory.
Check out the new Shazam! trailer below:
As evident from the trailer, this Shazam movie will be a bonkers, over the top, action-comedy. Recently, the higher-ups at Warner Bros/DC have made it clear that they’ve gotten rid of their previous blueprint — which we assume simply read: do whatever Marvel is doing — and are instead starting to forge their own path, focussing more on standalone films with unique directorial visions as opposed to building a cinematic universe.
The Warner Bros chairman, Toby Emmerich had this to say:
“We all feel like we’ve turned a corner now. We’re playing by the DC playbook, which is very different than the Marvel playbook. We are far less focused on a shared universe. We take it one movie at a time. Each movie is its own equation and own creative entity. If you had to say one thing about us, it’s that it always has to be about the directors.”
The director of Shazam! David Sandberg pretty much confirms this in an interview with comicbook.com. He said:
“It’s [Shazam!] very standalone. You don’t have to have seen any of the other films, because it’s its own contained story. It is more the world of it that’s part of a story.”
Shazam! official synopsis:
Billy Batson is a streetwise 14-year-old who can magically transform into the adult superhero Shazam simply by shouting out one word. His newfound powers soon get put to the test when he squares off against the evil Dr Thaddeus Sivana.
Shazam! starring Zachary Levi as the titular character is set to hit the big screens on 4 April 2019.
