‘Shazam!’ Director Says the Costume Still Isn’t Finished

The first trailer for Shazam! finally showed off the young Billy Batson and his heroic alter ego in a fun, funny, and action-packed reveal that got many DC Comics fans excited. But the first look at the Wizard’s Champion won’t be the same as his final appearance on the big screen.

New photos from Shazam! showed a look at the titular superhero, and fans noticed his costume was noticeably darker while the lightning bolt on his chest was a softer yellow. When fans on Reddit asked director David F. Sandberg about the changes, he was surprisingly forthcoming in his response.

“Making suits is hard. Like painting a room you can look at little swatches all day but you won’t really see the effect until it’s done,” Sandberg wrote. “The color of the finished suit didn’t look quite as expected in some lights (particularly daylight) which is on me since I decided to change fabric very late in prep and there wasn’t time for as many tests. I figured we’d just have to tweak it in post. The first image released though unfortunately didn’t have any post production done to it. That was right as we were putting the trailer together. I figured since that image was out there perhaps we shouldn’t stray too far from it in the trailer. Might be confusing.”

Even the picture from the magazine isn’t the finalized look, but it is more in line with what Sandberg is trying to achieve.

“This image is closer to what I’m going for, but it’s all still a work in progress and we’ll see where we end up. No images (or the trailer) have the finished bolt effect either (it’s not going to be an extreme effect or anything but it’s not just a simple glow),” Sandberg wrote.

Despite the costume still being tweaked, the trailer still seems to capture the tone of Sandberg’s film. The director has constantly referenced the films Big and Superman while speaking about the influences on Shazam!

“He’s trying to find his family… His mom is out there,” director David F. Sandberg told ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con. “But once he gets these powers, he’s just trying to figure out what to do with them and how it works. For that he needs his friend Freddy, who is like a superhero expert, who helps him to discover his powers and how to be a superhero.”

We’ll likely see the finalized version of the costume as we get closer to the premiere of Shazam!, premiering in theaters on April 5, 2019.