While she may never get to name-drop Black Adam, the wizard Shazam, or even her own original superhero name (Isis), DC’s Legends of Tomorrow star Tala Ashe is excited to see what the Shazam! movie will be like.
During a conversation with ComicBook.com at Comic Con International in San Diego, the actress who plays Zari Adrianna Tomaz said she was looking forward to the movie starring Zachary Levi.
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“I am! I really really am!” Ashe enthused. “I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with that.”
When we informed her that the trailer had dropped that very morning, she said she wanted to see the trailer right after her media commitments were finished.
Zari’s character is a reworking of Adrianna Tomaz, a superheroine introduced in the fan-favorite event miniseries 52. In the story, Tomaz was an activist who advocated against Black Adam’s regime in Kahndaq, the fictional nation ruled by the supervillain. After becoming enchanted by Tomaz, Adam offered her a position at his side, where he would share a portion of his powers with her, as well as the responsibility for ruling the nation. In exchange for her love, essentially, he would give her a voice, and help her find her missing brother.
Adrianna is a reworking of Andrea Thomas, the title lead in The Secrets of Isis. The series was a live-action American Saturday morning television program that served as the second half of The Shazam!/Isis Hour.
The name of “Isis,” originally a major goddess in an ancient Egyptian religion, has not been used on Legends of Tomorrow because of concerns the audience might connect her with ISIS/ISIL, a jihadist group in the real world which has essentially taken over for al-Qaeda as the most well-known and deadly group facing western military presences in the middle east.
Still, more-than-superficial similarities between Zari and Adrianna exist, including her powers and amulet; and during last season’s “Phone Home,” an homage to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial which included a trick-or-treating scene, Zari’s costume was that of Isis from the original TV series.
Shazam! opens in theaters April 5, 2019.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to Monday nights on The CW this October.
