‘Shazam!’ Star Zachary Levi on How the Film Connects to the Greater DCU

While DC Comics fans are gearing up for Aquaman hitting theaters this week, it won’t be long before another fan-favorite superhero hits the silver screen.

Zachary Levi will make his DC universe debut when Shazam! premieres in April, morphing Billy Batson into one of the premiere heroes in the franchise. But while the film will follow in the wake of the events of Justice League, it will do well in standing on its own according to the star.

Levi has previously explained that the movie will reference other superheroes, but that it will be easily accessible for those who haven’t been following the DC franchise of films closely.

“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.”

Little is known about the film’s plot thus far, except that it will adapt elements of the character’s New 52 origin while paying homage to classic films like Tom Hanks’ Big and Christopher Reeves’ Superman: The Movie.

New Line Cinema recently released a synopsis, teasing what fans can expect:

“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).”

Shazam! premieres in theaters on April 5, 2019.