Shazam!
Shazam!is lay out to be a bright and fun superhero medley , but there ’s something rather unsettle about the Wizard . The trailer for David F. Sandberg ’s take on the teenager - turned - super dropped somewhat out of the blue atSan Diego Comic - Con 2018 , showcasing a comedic twist on the DCEU that adapts the character’sNew 52 origin storyto a tee .
Essential to this is the Wizard Shazam . An sometime , magical being , he ’s been look for for a person pure enough to elapse his power along to and funnily bump just that in 14 - year - old Billy Batson . In the movie , he draw near Billy after he saves fellow foster child Freddie Freeman from high-pitched school bullies , recognize a good in his heart that apparently warrant giving him Superman - style powers . pool stick hilarious education montage and more somber coming - of - old age tale against villainDoctor Sivana .
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It ’s a simple persona that theShazam!trailergives little more than the needed time to . However , once you start comprehend deeper into the Wizard , things quickly kibosh tally up . There are too many interrogative sentence about the character and too many actors seize to the role . Today , we ’re going to dig into that mystery .
The Casting Of Shazam’s Wizard Is Confusing
The Wizard would be a key part to cast in anyShazam!film , and parole of the hunt for the 2019 project first broke in January 2018 ; report to be in talks wasRon Cephas Jones , best bonk forThis Is Us , who was on the face of it lock in in just before shooting start out . However , little was say of his role or the character after . Jump forwards to sooner this month and everything convert . On July 10 it was reported thatDjimon Hounsou was now playing the Wizard , with it further submit that Jones ' docket do the original lecture to fall through .
While that would n’t be the first recast of its form , the news immediately raised eyebrows . Hounsou was also late announce as playing theFisherman King in December’sAquaman , which is part of the same DC deal universe asShazam!(he ’s also reprising hisGuardians of the Galaxycharacter Korath forCaptain Marvelin February 2018 ) . It ’s not impossible for Hounsou to play both roles give the transformative burden of hisAquamanpart , but it ’s certainly an interesting move .
Things get weirder , though . In a synopsis forShazam!sent out with the teaser by UK atomic number 59 for the picture , the Wizard is still credited as being played by Ron Cephas Jones . Two player , one role - and the trailer did nothing to correct the mystery .
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The Shazam! Trailer Hides The Wizard
The Wizard may be an expectedly focal tip in theShazam!trailer , but that does n’t mean much is revealed about him . There ’s a encompassing shot of him sat at the center of the Council of Eternity chairs , then four flying average shots of the anatomy hunched over and with whisker obscuring his face . Aside from larn his name - something which , as we ’ll get to , is rummy in its own right - we do n’t get much on the character at all , with nary a hint as to who is under that hood .
That ’s right - the actor ca n’t be distinguish . In the straight - on stab of the Wizard , his aspect is blacked out by shadow to the tip that even when brightened using pic editing tool no details can be found . For elucidation , while trailers may have dark image , there is still normally tart detail hide out in there to be found ( indeed , inShazam ’s trailer clear up the shot of Freddy ’s Batarang revealsDCEU Batman’strademark line ) . For there to be an absence of any part of the Wizard ’s grimace is an meter reading of prototype manipulation with the intention to obfuscate .
The Wizard Is One Of The Few Things That Deviates From New 52
Without any concrete entropy on cast or from the trailer , what we have to turn to then is the comedian . And here ’s where it gets very foreign . WhileShazam!is travel along the Modern 52 descent at points shot - for - shot , the Wizard may mark another departure . Throughout Shazam ’s 79 - class history , the Wizard has been typically named Shazam , with thehero being Captain Marvel . The first loop where this was n’t the case is in the New 52 ; in part because DC throw away " Captain Marvel " ( all part of a farseeing legal difference of opinion with Marvel Comics ) and named the submarine Shazam , the Wizard was have sex as just that - Wizard - with his real name eventually revealed as " Mamaragan " .
The implication from theShazam!trailer is that the Wizard is called Shazam as well as the hero , and while it could be clever trailer redaction hiding the much less catchy New 52 moniker , it potentially salute a central amusing divergence ; the only other example of which at this point is theabsence of Black Adam , with Mark Strong ’s Doctor Sivana claim on full villain tariff .
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On its own , it ’s not much , but with all three points considered , it ’s begining to finger like something is going on with Shazam ’s Wizard … but what ?
Page 2 of 2:Possible Explanations for Shazam’s Wizard
This May Just Be A By-Product Of Studio Mystery
Before getting all tinfoil chapeau , it ’s deserving considering the most logical solvent : the Wizard is just the Wizard and everything suspicious is a result of Warner Bros. secretiveness . Shazam!is still eight months aside and has just a mystifier house trailer plus a smattering of not - that - revealing stills released so far . Little is recognise about the project by purpose , and frankly that ’s jolly normal . If there was a recast , even for something as innocent as a programing conflict , that need n’t be announced , while the confound trailer editing around the Wizard could be related to theunfinished magical essence .
This is true of so many late pre - release devotee theories : Luke is Kylo Ren inStar Wars : The Force Awakens ; Owen is the grown - up raptor kid fromJurassic Park ; most of the expectation forAvengers : Infinity War . They rely on a want of information and finding the most exciting if infeasible way to plug the gap . It ’s wholly potential that ’s what ’s happening here withShazam ! ; the Wizard is kept in phantasma because that ’s how the movie will address this inherently other - realmly grapheme .
There’s A Wizard Twist At The Heart of Shazam!
Of of course , there ’s just enough not adding up to hypothecate further . If there is something give-up the ghost on with the Wizard , it ’s surely a comical book divergence and thus a pretty key twirl on the mythology . But what ?
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It may be weird as a prompting , but the best direction to consolidate all aspect of the Wizards closed book from the exterior would be that there are two of them inShazam ; this would rationalize two player being linked to the role in the past month yet neither being corroborate by the trailer . How that would work chronicle - wise is the issue , and going down this furrow of cerebration reach the recast story increasingly believable .
However , that does nothing to address why the Wizard is being hidden in the trailer ; if it is just Hounsou as Mamaragan , why is n’t he out in the open ? Is Black Adam the Wizard ? Highly improbable for a multitude of intellect , not least Dwayne Johnson ’s report unavailability to the labor . Is the Wizard somehow tie to Sivana ? It would certainly depart from the comedian in a way that seems unnecessary , although in the rarified custom of mentors - turned - nemeses would definitely shape as part of Billy Batson ’s origin arc . This is in two ways true considering Black Adam is lacking , leaving a hole in the story being adapted .
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At nowadays , there merely is n’t enough entropy onShazam!to truly infer the Wizard . But , even from what piffling we have , there are some full-grown , perplexing questions being left by this cardinal figure . We ’ll be keeping an eye on Mamaragan ( and his funnily shadowed face ) .