Shazam! is on course to serve as the biggest contradiction yet to the old stereotype that DCEU movies are dark and moody, with the film’s first trailer suggesting a light and playful tone, along with a very child-heavy cast.
Like Bruce Wayne, the young Billy Batson is an orphan, but he’s hardly the brooding billionaire loner type, with the character seen posing with his foster family in a photo recently shared to Reddit. While 16-year-old Asher Angel shares the lead role with Zachary Levi, Grace Fulton of Annabelle: Creation fame plays the part of Mary Bromfield, seen here as the tallest of the group.
Meanwhile, Jack Dylan Grazer, seen on the far right, assumes the role of Billy’s best friend Freddy Freeman, the only person who knows of Batson’s secret identity. The cast of foster siblings is rounded out by Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, and Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, all viewable below.
In case it wasn’t clear, David F. Sandberg’s upcoming flick is probably going to be a rather family-friendly affair, with Warner Bros. previously hyping up the movie as a work comparable to The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter. So while Shazam! is currently looking a little overshadowed in the release calendar by relatively high-stakes superhero outings like Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, perhaps the film can still sell itself as a relatively lighthearted work of magic and whimsy. Either way, you know you’re living in strange times when the next DC movie is set to be the ‘fun’ alternative to the ‘serious’ Marvel releases that surround it.
In any case, we’ll find out if Shazam! can work its charm on audiences when the film hits theaters on April 5th, 2019. In the meantime, look out for that next trailer.
