‘Shazam!’ Director Trolls Fans on ‘Batman Forever’ Comparisons

The Internet has had an array of responses to the new looks at Zachary Levi in Shazam!, and it looks like the film’s director has a pretty good comeback to some less-than-positive ones.

David F. Sandberg, who is set to direct the upcoming DC Films venture, recently responded to a harsh tweet about the film’s new Entertainment Weekly cover. After one user compared the Shazam! costume to something out of Batman Forever, Sandberg joked that the back of the costume draws inspiration from Batman and Robin‘s infamous “Bat Nipples”.

While the Shazam! costume has occasionally gotten some negativity – particularly, when the first set photos of it leaked online – plenty of fans have begun to embrace the ensemble’s aesthetic. And as Sandberg has explained in previous interviews, his goal was to set Shazam! apart from his superhero counterparts.

“I don’t know if [the suit is] crazy big if you look at some of the others — look at Batman,” Sandberg said earlier this month. “I wanted to keep the shorter cape as a throwback to the original because that’s something that sets him apart from Superman or Batman. It makes him feel a bit more Golden Age superhero, which is the vibe I’m going for.”

And as it turns out, the Shazam! costume has actually evolved quite a bit since the film began production, for some pretty good reasons.

“There were a few iterations,” Sandberg said in a previous interview. “And you sort of have to keep changing stuff even after we started shooting because you realize things… You shoot the first scene and Zach (Levi) is like, ‘You know, I can’t move my hands properly with these gauntlets.’ So, we had to redesign that, or like the boots kept falling apart so it’s like, ‘Oh well, I guess we have to do something different there,’ It was sort of a constant process of updating and making it work better.”

Shazam! is directed by Sandberg and stars Zachary Levi (Shazam), Mark Strong (Dr. Thaddeus Sivana), Djimon Hounsou (The Wizard), Jack Dylan Grazer (Freddy Freeman), Asher Angel (Billy Batson), Grace Fulton (Mary Bromfield), Ross Butler, Adam Brody, and Michelle Borth.

You can view the official synopsis for Shazam! below.

“We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. 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 (Strong).”

What do you think of Sandberg’s comeback? And would you want the Shazam! costume to come with “Butt Nipples”? Let us know what you think in the comments below.