Jack Dylan Grazer Compares 'Shazam!' to 'It'

Before he was one of six foster siblings in Shazam!, actor Jack Dylan Grazer played Eddie Kaspbrak in the Stephen King adaptation It -- and while there are not a ton of similarities between the two movies, one of them is that Grazer plays a stand-out among a talented cast of young actors. The dynamics were very different -- there was a lot more jockeying for position and getting to know one another in It, as the Losers Club kind of came together in response to a crisis as much as they were friends. This time around, Grazer got to be almost a mentor figure to Billy Batson (Asher Angel), showing him the ropes of family life in the Philadelphia group home where they lived before showing him how to be a superhero.

"It's really similar," Grazer said, when asked about the big groups of young actors on the set of Shazam!. "I think in It, it was more of a brotherhood -- I mean also Sophia, but it was more of a brotherhood bond, connection type thing than in this. [Shazam! is] more a family, working together as a family. To them, It was more of a really strong kinship. There's that kind of difference, overall it's kind of the same triumphant story." Asked to talk about the difference between Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise the Clown and Mark Strong's Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, he broke it down with a bit of a joke: "Yeah there was a major difference," he said. "Yeah, Bill Skarsgard was a really barbaric clown that wants to eat me, versus Mark Strong, who's really intent and sophisticated, and not trying to eat me."

Grazer will appear again in It Chapter Two, out in theaters on September 6. His older self in that movie will be played by The Wire's James Ransone. Shazam is now in theaters; Joker arrives on October 4, Birds of Prey on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, and The Batman on June 25, 2021.

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