‘Shazam!’ Begins Filming; Director David F. Sandberg Shares First Set Photo

The DCEU adaptation of ‘Shazam!‘ is finally officially beginning to roll it’s cameras. Director David F. Sandberg has shared the first photo from the set, marking the beginning of production for the DC Comics adaptation. ‘Shazam!‘ follows the character of Billy Batson, who upon saying the words “Shazam”, transforms himself into an adult superhero who has increased strength, the ability to fly, super speed, among other abilities. Zachary Levi (‘Chuck’) stars as the titular hero, while Asher Angel will play young Billy Batson.

We don’t know much about the film at this point, but it seems so far that ‘Shazam!‘ will be a major departure from the hum-drum entires into the universe thus far like ‘Batman v. Superman‘ and ‘Justice League‘. Sandberg has been pretty upfront about the fact that the film will have more of a more comedic tone, and Levi described the film as “‘Big’ meets ‘Superman’“, if superman had a bit more of an irreverent tone. Levi’s comedic roots with shows like ‘Chuck‘ surely cements this direction for the film, but it will be a big tonal departure for Sandberg, who has previously directed successful horror movies with last year’s ‘Annabelle: Creation‘ and ‘Lights Out‘.

Although the images themselves aren’t super exciting, they do seem to indicate that some sort of VFX/motion capture pre-shoot is happening before the film officially enters production next week in Toronto, which is pretty standard for big movies to get a jump start on the more effects-heavy sequences. ‘Shazam!’ is the next movie to shoot after the recently wrapped ‘Aquaman’ standalone film, but it seems that the film might lead into the much-anticipated ‘Flashpoint‘ (which recently found new directors), and ‘Suicide Squad 2’, which Warner Bros. is hoping to et in front of cameras by the end of the year. Either way, I’m sure we can expect to see more form the set of this film soon.

In addition to Levi and Angel, the film also stars Mark Strong as the villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley. The film is currently scheduled for an April 5, 2019 release date. Check out the new images below.

Let’s go!⚡️

A post shared by David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) on Jan 29, 2018 at 9:15am PST

Nerdy stuff that excites me: Using arrays of Blackmagic Micro Studio cameras to capture performances in 3D space. pic.twitter.com/SAM0r9vlDR

— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) January 28, 2018

One of the rigs. pic.twitter.com/fGiZQCk5sn

— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) January 28, 2018