Shazam! was the first DC movie to go into production following the release of Justice League in November 2017. Given that the team-up film – or rather its box office failure – heavily changed the direction of the franchise, you might think that the development of the Zachary Levi-starring flick could have have been influenced by JL in some way. But director David F. Sandberg revealed to Heroic Hollywood that his movie is a completely “separate film.”
I mean, it’s such a separate film that I don’t think it changed anything really. It’s very different from Justice League. It’s still the same universe, but just has a very different tone, and it’s not … yeah.
HH also reports that Sandberg told them that Shazam!‘s tone is not influenced by either Justice League itself or the heavy criticism it garnered. He’s probably right about that, but it definitely feels like Shazam!‘s tone is influenced by Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ever since audiences didn’t take to the grim n’ gritty stylings of Zack Snyder’s opus, DC has been trying to course-correct towards relatively lighter fare.
And Shazam! looks to be comfortably the lightest, funniest modern DC movie of the lot. When your film is about a kid who magically becomes an adult superhero, it’s naturally going to generate laughs, even when it’s directed by a horror auteur like Sandberg. The director has said, though, that he hopes to mix the comedy – which he described as situational and not based on quips – with a genuine threat.
That threat will come in the form of Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana. The recent teaser trailer saw Billy Batson and Sivana engaged in an airborne battle that recalled Superman and Zod’s brawl in Man of Steel, so you just know that the evil doctor’s going to be a formidable foe for the original Captain Marvel when Shazam hits theaters on April 5th.
