From DC Comics fans to the kids that remember that 70s tv show, one magic word will light up the imagination of that fans and that word is Shazam!! And to the delight of these fans the SHAZAM! the movie is currently being filmed at this time, and the star of the movie as adult part of the superhero Shazam is Zachary Levi formerly of Chuck.
For those non-comic book fans who may be unaware of Shazam, the character originally began pretty shortly after Superman came out and was then known as Captain Marvel. A young boy named Billy Batson, who was an orphan and a young radio reporter, came upon a tunnel which led to an old Temple where he met the wizard Shazam. The wizard looked into his heart and saw he was a good kid and advised Billy that a special champion was needed, and of how when he repeated the Wizards, name he would become filled with great power. Originally the name Shazam was an acronym and broke down into names of different characters from different myths and religions:S from the name Solomon, H for the name Hercules, A from the name Atlas, Z from the name Zeus, A for the name Achilles, and M for the name Mercury. These different figures gave Shazam his great speed, strength, wisdom, invulnerability, power, and more.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of a kid becoming an adult superhero just imagine the movie, Big the one with Tom Hanks mixed with a bit of Thor from the recent movies and Superman, that might give you a little insight into Shazam.
There are people, of course, upset due to his appearance, however, his build is not that far away from the actors who portrayed Captain Marvel in the 70s, and also Mr. Levi has an attribute not a lot of other actors have, the ability to project a sense of wonder.
In the TV series Chuck,Mr. Levi played a young man who worked in basically a dead-end job at a big box store that mostly sold electronics. In the course of series, he has all knowledge available downloaded into his brain, which he used to assist the government with issues of national security and to help others. As the series progressed he developed physical skills as well as mental and became a spy in his own right. Also during the series, when he discovered a new skill or is able to use his knowledge to help others, at times his face lit up with wonder at his new discoveries and even after couple seasons and he becomes a more serious spy that wholesome innocence and wonder stayed even as became more hardened to his new profession.
The sense of wonder is what we need with his character so much and John Cena nice man and terrific wrestler, hasn’t quite capabilities pull off. And Dwayne Johnson has taken the role of one of the heroes adversaries, a big bad by the name of Black Adam, we have the right man for the job.
Much like the controversy that plagued Michael Keaton back in the eighties when he was selected to play Batman, this seems to be a recurring issue with fandom. From the casting Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman to Tom Holland as Spider-Man we want our choices on who plays the character, but by and large, we get the actors we need, even if you don’t get the ones that we want.
