We Could See Shazam In a ‘Justice League’ Movie
The movies that Warner Bros. and DC Comics are showing off at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend include Aquaman (YEAYUHH!) and Shazam!, the first-ever big-screen appearance of the World’s Mightiest Mortal. The film stars Zachary Levi as Shazam, a superhero summoned by an ordinary kid when he says his name.
Shazam (also known as Captain Marvel, but not known as Captain Marvel in the movie for very obvious reasons) has had a long and complicated history in comics. He was at one point DC Comics and Superman’s chief competitor, but Shazam’s parent company eventually went out of business and then DC bought the rights to the character. Eventually he was added to the DC Comics universe, and though he has often been kept relatively separate from the rest of the DC superheroes, he has had a few tenures in the Justice League. So it’s only natural to ask if we could see Levi pop up in a future DC movie about the Justice League or its affiliated heroes.
Entertainment Weekly says yes. Speaking with the film’s creative teams, they revealed that Shazam is definitely set in the same universe as the Justice League, and a crossover could happen down the line:
‘I wouldn’t be surprised to see Shazam play a role in the DCU,’ [producer Peter] Safran replied carefully. ‘He exists in that world.’
Levi said “I would lose my s— if that happened, I would lose all of the s—s,” in response to the question of whether Shazam could spread his cape and fly into other DC movies.
Unlike Marvel, DC seems to be planning on branching out from one cinematic universe; the DCEU has one Joker (Jared Leto) and now Warner Bros. is making Joker with Joaquin Phoenix. There have been similar rumors about Matt Reeves’ Batman movie existing outside the movies that have been coming out since Man of Steel. So it’s worth confirming that Shazam is set in that main DCEU.
Of course, any possible future Shazam appearances depend on the film being a huge hit, and on Warners figuring out how to make another Justice League after the first movie flopped. (It was the lowest grossing movie in the DCEU to date, which is nuts.) So this could be a very moot point. Shazam! opens in theaters on April 5, 2019.