New ‘Shazam!’ Synopsis Revealed

Warner Bros. has released a new synopsis for Shazam!

The film, which will be released via New Line Cinema, is directed by David F. Sandberg.

Here’s the synopsis:

“We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Zachary Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou). Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).”

Star Asher Angel and Zachary Levi have hinted at what fans can expect from the new film.

“It is a family movie,” said Angel. “I think him and Superman have a lot in common. He can basically do everything Superman can do.”

“It is you [Angel] in me,” Levi said. “It’s a fourteen-year-old kid. You’re the Earth’s Mightiest Mortal.”

“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 said in a separate interview. “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.”

Levi has also stressed that, despite being released via New Line, Shazam is set in the DC Extended Universe.

“Our movie takes place very squarely in the DC Universe. In fact, I would argue that we’re kind of the most self-aware of it because the movies that we all watch — I mean, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman — they’re all basically documentaries in their world,” Levi told Entertainment Tonight. “These things, these are all real events that have happened. Batman and Superman fighting, Superman saving all of Metropolis, whilst simultaneously destroying the entire city — that all really happened.”

Are you excited about Shazam!? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Shazam! will open in theaters on April 5, 2019.

Other upcoming DC Extended Universe movies include Aquaman on December 21st, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, and Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020.