‘Shazam!’ Director Teases San Diego Comic-Con Appearance

Shazam! director David F. Sandberg took to Twitter earlier today to express his enthusiasm about Comic Con in San Diego next month — prompting fans to assume the rumors are true and New Line will unveil the film’s trailer there.

Sandberg said little, sharing only a small illustration of himself eagerly anticipating Comic Con, but with official announcements about panels and appearances at the show beginning to be announced, it seems likely that Warner Bros. and New Line will give official word on Shazam! sooner than later.

Reports are that Warner will bring Aquaman, Shazam!, and Wonder Woman 1984 to the show in various capacities, although Wonder Woman‘s presence is rumored to be just a brief appearance by Gal Gadot and maybe a little footage.

You can see Sandberg’s tweet below.

Shazam!, which will be set around the holidays, is heavily influenced by the New 52 revival of the character by DC’s former chief creative officer Geoff Johns, who left the company recently to start a production company.

One of his first post-DC deals? Signing an exclusive deal with Warner Bros. to provide DC-centric content, including a new Shazam! comic book series timed to coincide with the start of the film.

The movie has been described as “Big with superheroes,” which seems apt; in that film, a young boy makes a wish that he could be big, and it’s granted — with a twist: he wakes up the next day with his regular mind in an adult body.

There are different takes on Shazam!, with some writers treating the superhero (sometimes known as Captain Marvel — long story there) as a separate entity from Billy Batson while other writers imagine him as Billy’s mind in the superhero’s body. A happy medium some fans choose to interpret is that Shazam is Billy’s mind, but given the wisdom of Solomon (one of the hero’s powers), it changes his perspective somewhat and can sometimes make him seem to be a different person from his younger self.

The second of those three takes seems the most likely for a movie that closely identifies with Big, but fans will have almost a year to see what shape it will take.

Shazam! stars Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ron Cephas Jones, Grace Fulton, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Caroline Palmer, and Andi Osho.

Justice League is now on home video. The DCEU continues with Aquaman on December 21, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019. Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps are still in development, along with numerous other films, but it is not yet clear what impact changes at DC management will have on their timetables for production and release.