Shazam Director Won't De-Age Actor With Special Effects

08/26/2017 12:21 pm EDT

David F. Sandberg's Shazam! film will undoubtedly have plenty of special effects, but there is one thing in particular that will not be CG.

Sandberg spoke to Collider about his current film Annabelle: Creation, which involved working with child actors. His next film, Shazam!, will also integrate child actors, as the lead role stars a child in a superhero's body. The recent preference is to digitally de-age an actor, but that isn't for Sandberg.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to do that. That seems like way too much of a hassle. So I think it's just kind of best to have a kid and an adult."

Sandberg doesn't have anything against the process mind you, saying "Yeah and they've done quite well, I mean Kurt Russell was in the latest Guardians was really well made I thought, but I think there's a limit to it as well. You probably can't do someone to be a kid. Why create that hassle for yourself?"

He's learned a great deal since his first film project, and those lessons will most likely make their way into Shazam! in some form or fashion.

"Well I mean overall, I've been working with kids in both my movies to my success and there will be kids in Shazam and the main character is this kid who becomes an adult. But otherwise I think, I mean my first movie was just a huge learning experience in that, I'd only made no-to-low-budget shorts before back home in Sweden and all of a sudden, I got to go to film fests in America and I got to be the director. There was a lot to learn on that movie. Just how movies are made here. How things work. And then on Annabelle, there was a lot more sort of… I was lot more relaxed and could have a little bit more fun and just try out some different things, like a little bit of a different shooting style and stuff like that that I really enjoyed and I want to try to keep."

Shazam! is currently slated to hit theaters on April 5, 2019.

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