'Shazam!' Movie Confirmed to Be Set in the Winter

Shazam! might be less than a year away from arriving on the big screen, but it looks like we already have one major clue about the DC Comics film's setting.

In a recent interview on the Film Riot Podcast, Shazam! director David F. Sandberg confirmed that the film will be set during the winter. As Sandberg explained, this will have a unique impact on the film's visual aesthetic.

"On this one, it was just like 'Yeah, I want this to be a classic superhero movie.'" Sandberg revealed. "It takes place in the winter, so it's a lot of dark exteriors, but with a lot of colorful lights and stuff around them."

Some DC fans had already been speculating about the film's winter setting, after various set photos showed wintry landscapes and Christmas decorations. And even as Shazam! will be released in the spring, this choice of time of year certainly makes sense, considering its lighthearted tone.

"This will be very different than what I've done in the feature space, because it's not a horror movie and it's a much lighter tone," Sandberg said in an interview last year. "But it's something that I look forward to trying out, even though I plan to return to horror in some fashion. My background, back in Sweden, before I started doing horror shorts, I was doing animated comedy shorts. It's not totally alien to me to have more of a comedy approach. I look forward to taking that on in a feature."

The film is set to follow Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a young boy who can transform into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) after shouting the magic word "Shazam!". In addition to Asher and Levi, Shazam! will include Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, and Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana.

"I can't tell you much, as you can probably imagine, but what I can say is I am just out of my mind excited!" Levi explained earlier this year. "I get to do my version of Big, basically. It's like Superman meets Big, and that's just so fun. I get to be a superhero that's excited about being a superhero, and I think that's refreshing. It's not glum, and like, 'Oh, I have to save the world again.' So I think it's all really gravy."

What do you think of Shazam!'s winter setting? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Shazam! will fly into theaters on April 5, 2019.