10 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed In Shazam!

The hero formally known as Captain Marvel finally made his modern cinematic debut this week with Shazam!, the latest DC movie to prove that Marvel's rival isn't just about producing dark and gritty superhero films. The Zachary Levi-starring effort is being widely praised for its good-natured humor and heart and is also being rewarded with a rather solid opening at the box office. All in all, it's a strong debut for a comic book character who deserves to be more familiar to moviegoing audiences. And Shazam! does its best at adapting the hero's 80-year mythos to the big screen without overwhelming the narrative. Which, luckily for us easter egg hunters, means that it's stuffed full of allusions and references to obscure things from the DC universe. Likewise, director David F. Sandberg clearly draws inspiration from a range of other sources as well, from classic movies to other superhero films. And so on that note, here are 10 must-see easter eggs hidden in Shazam! that you might've missed on your first viewing. Just click that magic word - "Next" - to get started. The Rock Of Eternity's Relics The movie travels to the realm of the wizard Shazam several times, so fans get the chance to glimpse the many mystical artifacts he's been guarding for millennia. Some of these factor into the plot, like the Eye of Envy and Mister Mind's dome (more on that later), but most of them are pretty obscure, so let's just run through all the ones we spotted. Magic Mirror - A magic mirror can be glimpsed to the left when Billy enters Shazam's realm after being transported there from the subway. In The New 52 comics, the mirror's home to a disembodied entity known as Francesca who appears to aid Shazam and can only be seen by those with magic powers. The Ibistick Of Ibis - A golden staff can be seen in the entryway of the magical realm. The triangular shape on top tells us this is the powerful wand of the Egyptian prince known as Ibis the Invincible, a character who hails from the 1950s. Burning Violin - Located by the mirror is a burning violin. This could be a historical reference to Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned. Or it could be a nod to Captain Marvel Adventures #64, a 1946 tale inspired by the story which sees Oggar, a corrupted champion of Shazam's, enchant his minion Nero's violin to spew fire in an attempt to burn down New York. The Importance Of John Glover John Glover turns up in a small supporting role in Shazam! as Dr. Sivana's father. The prolific actor might not be a household name but his face - and voice - should be very familiar to DC fans as he's been appearing in their productions since the 1990s. Glover can be heard as the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series and seen as Dr. Jason Woodrue in Batman & Robin. However, his most famous DC role is as Lionel Luthor on TV's Smallville, which he played for nearly 150 episodes across the show's 10-year run. His turn as Lex Luthor's pa is surely what landed him the part of Sivana's father, too. Like Lionel, Sivana Sr. is the greedy tycoon father of a son who grows up to be a bald supervillain who murders him for his sins (or by his sins, in this case). Fawcett Central Those with a good knowledge of Shazam's history will note that Billy Batson and his foster siblings attend Fawcett Central School. This is, of course, a callback to the fact that Shazam AKA Captain Marvel was originally created by Fawcett Comics in 1939 as a rival to Superman. As the company shut down in the 1950s, DC relaunched the character in their own universe in the 1970s where he's remained ever since. For decades, Billy Batson's home was named Fawcett City as a nod to his publication origins. However, The New 52 relocated him to the more grounded location of Philadelphia. This is something that the movie - which is largely derived from The New 52 continuity - retains, but it's nice that they still found a way to work in a Fawcett reference somehow. Shazam's Other Names There's a running joke in Shazam! that Freddy keeps giving his superhero best pal a variety of alter egos to try out. They generally don't catch on, as Billy finds them embarrassing, but many of them have some kind of importance that you might have missed. The first time Shazam intervenes when a woman is being mugged, Freddy introduces him as "Thundercrack" - though Billy vetoes the name, as he thinks it sounds like "a butt thing." This could be a nod to how Captain Marvel was initially conceived as Captain Thunder in the 30s, though. Later, when Freddy's trying to show off at school and proclaims that he knows Philadelphia's caped wonder, his bullies don't believe that he knows "the Red Cyclone." This sounds like a cross between two DC heroes: Red Tornado and Cyclone, the original Red Tornado's granddaughter. One other recurring nickname is "Captain Sparklefingers." This is the closest the movie comes to uttering Shazam's original name, for obvious reasons, but it's actually more specifically a nod to the Marvel heroine. In the comics, Carol Danvers has been called "Princess Sparklefists." So we'd like to think this a cross-company reference here. And it wouldn't be the only one, either. In the montage of Freddy's YouTube uploads, we can spot that one video describes the hero as "Zap-tain America," which must mean that Marvel comics exist in the DCEU, right? Big, Independence Day And... Annabelle? Shazam! also tips its hat to a couple of classic 90s movies and one cult horror flick from the last decade. First up, we've heard a lot about how the film was pitched as a mix of Big and Superman: The Movie, so it's fitting that it pays homage to the Tom Hanks aged-up comedy. One famous scene from that film sees Hanks' character dancing on an oversized keyboard in a mall and during his first battle with Sivana, Shazam crosses a similar model, resulting in some comedy chase music. Speaking of Sivana, when he attacks his father's board room and lets the Seven Deadly Sins loose on them, the office fills with mist. The secretary outside then draws in close to the window when a claw slams at the glass, causing them to scream. This must be a tip of the hat to the famous scene in Independence Day which plays out much the same way. Finally, none other Annabelle, the creepy doll from The Conjuring movies, makes a cameo in Shazam!, which is actually her second cameo in a DC effort. James Wan created the franchise so dropped her to the bottom of the ocean in Aquaman and given that David F. Sandberg helmed spinoff Annabelle: Creation, he also couldn't help but feature her on a shelf in the pawn shop where Billy lures the cops at the beginning of the film. Black Adam, Tawky Tawny And The Crocodile Men Shazam! does a good job of introducing cinemagoers to the wide, wild world of the character, but there's still a lot else to be explored in future movies. For one, notable by his absence is Shazam's nemesis Black Adam, set to be played by Dwayne Johnson whenever he's finally free enough to make his DC debut. As such, Teth-Adam doesn't appear in the flesh but a magical avatar of him shows up instead, when Shazam tells Billy the story of how a former champion of his unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins, killing his fellow wizards. Less famous but still a key part of the Shazam mythos is Billy's long-term pal Tawky Tawny, the sharp-suited anthropomorphic tiger. As the character has been mostly phased out of the comics for being too silly, we didn't expect him to appear properly in the movie, but thankfully, his influence can be felt all over the place. Stuffed tiger toys appear throughout and roaring tigers adorn the two golden clasps holding the hero's cape in place. Finally, when the kids are trying to find the right door to return to their home from Shazam's realm, one reveals a group of crocodile men playing poker. Shazam has long battled intelligent, humanoid crocodiles, so hopefully this easter egg is heading somewhere in the sequel. Justice League Mortal Justice League Mortal is infamous amongst DC fans as George Miller's attempt to make a movie based on the super-friends team would have been fascinating to see if it hadn't been canned back in 2007. All these years later, Shazam! gives us the next best thing by finally letting two of the Mortal cast play DC superheroes. In the big climax, Billy shares his powers with his siblings, allowing the kids to transform into the Shazam family from the comics. The adult actors include Michelle Borth, Ross Butler and Meagan Good. Fans will be most excited by the presence of Adam Brody as the adult Freddy and D.J. Cotrona as the grown-up Pedro, though. In Mortal, Brody was signed up to play the Flash while Cotrona would have been Superman. After more than a decade since this project failed, they at last get to squeeze into some spandex. Also, their co-star in Mortal would have been Armie Hammer as Batman. Another casting choice which might just end up going somewhere... Superman/Batman References Shazam! is perhaps the best DC movie so far for capturing what it would be like to live in a world where the Justice League exists. Mainly, this is achieved through Freddy and his encyclopedic knowledge of the world's heroes, which allows the filmmakers to fit in a range of easter eggs to the comics, classic movies and fellow DCEU entries. Most are to do with Batman and Superman. Freddy's collection, for instance, features many allusions to the events of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, like his issue of Time covering Zod's invasion of Metropolis. Meanwhile, when exploring Billy's newfound powers, Freddy tests whether his friend can "leap tall buildings in a single bound" and is "faster than a locomotive," two traditional descriptions of Superman's gifts. On the Batman side of things, Billy trains in an abandoned factory which - you'll see if you look carefully at the steel tanks inside - is actually a former Ace Chemicals plant. When they visit a real estate agent for a "lair," meanwhile, Billy describes one with a waterfall you can drive through, much like the Dark Knight does with his Batcave. Of course, all the Supes/Bats love leads into Superman's cameo in the final scene. Note that John Williams' theme from Superman: The Movie plays for a few seconds as the Man of Steel shows up. Our favorite nod to the 1978 flick, however, is the newspaper headline about Shazam that reads "Caped Wonder Stuns City" - the same headline The Daily Bugle ran when Supes made his first public appearance. Mister Mind Shazam!'s mid-credits scene reveals that Sivana will find himself an unlikely new ally in his quest to gain magical domination in the sequel. And the ally in question probably left many moviegoers scratching their heads. Yes, the villain's new pal is a talking caterpillar. This, you see, is Mister Mind, a Venusian hyper-intelligent worm with telepathic powers. He's been around since 1943 and has often teamed-up with Sivana, so the follow-up has a long history to draw on. Those paying attention will note that this is not Mind's first appearance in the film, either. When Sivana is called to the wizard's realm as a boy, he peers at a glass dome in which the evil worm is trapped. During the later clash between the hero and villain in the realm, it can be seen that the dome has been smashed. Hence how he later tracks Sivana down to his jail cell. In his final speech, Mister Mind tells Sivana that together they will unleash the monsters of the seven realms. This must be a nod to the Monster Society of Evil, the worm's league of villains in the comics. The seven realms isn't a concept from the source material, but it could be an altered take on the monsterlands instead. Clearly, Sandberg and his team already have plans for a Shazam! sequel, so let's hope they get the chance to bring them to life.