'Shazam!' Director On Why He Wanted a Smaller-Scale Final Battle

At this point, everybody can think of at least a couple of big action/sci-fi/superhero-type movies that culminate with an army of good guys facing off with an army of bad guys while a giant hole in the sky threatens to destroy all of reality.

That is exactly the kind of familiar scenario that Shazam! director David F. Sandberg wanted to avoid when crafting the big finale to his superhero spectacular, which hits theaters this spring.

"It is a very sort of personal story, which I like 'cause I find it more engaging when its not like an entire world and everything, like it's a blue beam in the sky and [inaudible] coming in. So it's fun work. It's like this whole carnival is in danger and all these people need to be saved and it's more manageable and I think it's more engaging as well."

So Shazam! will differentiate itself from the Man of Steel and Suicide Squad school of filmmaking by, rather than having the whole world in imminent danger, making the threat more localized and yet more emotionally raw for the characters and for the film's audience.

It should be a fun sequence, if only becuase we already know that they actually broke a real ferris wheel in the course of production.

The easter egg-filled first trailer for the upcoming DC Films production made its debut over the weekend as part of Warner Bros.' San Diego Comic-Con Hall H presentation. Set firmly in the connected DCEU — already home to Wonder Woman, Justice League, and Aquaman — Shazam! turns to lighter fare, telling the story of 14-year-old foster kid Billy (Angel), who is endowed with the ability to transform into adult superhero Shazam (Levi) after an encounter with an ancient wizard.

Filling out Angel's Shazam family are Jack Dylan Grazer (It) as Freddy Freeman, Grace Fulton (Annabelle: Creation) as Mary Bromfield, Faithe Herman (This is Us) as Darla Dudley, Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat) as Eugene Choi, and Jovan Armand (The Middle) as Pedro Pena. The newly-minted superhero will have to confront the nefarious schemes of the villainous Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, played here by Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Golden Circle).

Shazam! opens April 5, 2019.