Though most of the focus is on Wonder Woman and Justice League right now when it comes to DC’s upcoming slate of films, one project that’s starting to heat up is Shazam! One of the reasons for this is Dwayne Johnson, who will be playing Black Adam in the adaptation and has been teasing it quite a bit lately. That, coupled with some pretty awesome fan art, makes it easy to see why interest and excitement for the film has increased so much and now, the hype train is starting up once again.
Not too long ago, Johnson told us that a big announcement regarding Shazam! would be made soon. While we still haven’t got anything official just yet, fans are starting to put the pieces together and an intriguing new development has arisen tonight. You see, in the past, casting news for some of DC’s projects has been revealed ahead of schedule by fans taking a look at who’s following who on Twitter. In short, by looking at who notable individuals involved with the company have started following recently, you can get an idea of who they may be eyeing for their upcoming films.
It happened with Rick Famuyiwa, who was once attached to The Flash, and also Joe Manganiello, who’s going to be in The Batman. Now, it looks like we have some clues as to who may direct Shazam! That’s because DC Films head honcho Geoff Johns recently took a meeting with Dwayne Johnson, after which he followed his producing partners on Twitter. While that’s not terribly surprising, he also followed a third person, director Brad Peyton.
While that doesn’t necessarily confirm anything, it’s important to note that Peyton has worked with Johnson on several films and the two are known to be good friends. That may not be enough to make it official, but it’s more than enough to send the hype train into overdrive and understandably so. Aside from everything we just mentioned, there’s also the fact that Warner Bros. already has a good working relationship with the director, as he’s made several films with them that have brought in a respectable amount of money.
Again though, this is all just speculation for now and until the studio releases an official statement, it will remain as such. That being said, we could see Peyton being a good fit for Shazam!, especially since we know he works well with Johnson. For the time being, though, it’s best not to get too excited. While this type of Twitter activity has proven to lead to something tangible in the past, there have also been many cases where it’s meant nothing at all.
With the film still a long ways away, it’s going to be some time before we hear of a director signing on. It could be Peyton, or it could be someone else entirely. The only thing we know for sure is that’s it’s going to be one hell of a fun ride, as Johnson is clearly very passionate about it and when he puts his all into a project, the results are usually pretty positive.
