The young Billy Batson will become a superhero, but he’ll have to face the terror of Dr. Thaddeus Sivana in the upcoming film Shazam!
Videos by ComicBook.com
It seems like actor Mark Strong is always playing the bad guy, but this is his second time playing a bonafide super villain in the DC Comics universe. And he’s looking forward to making his mark as the devious Dr. Sivana.
“I feel like, because we’ve gone through a whole process of many superheroes now, where we’re looking for the slightly more obscure ones, or we’re discovering the slightly more obscure ones, shall I say,” Strong said during ComicBook.com’s visit to the set of Shazam!, “I was really surprised to find out that in 1940, when the original comic came out, Sivana was in the second edition. He is a proper, old school villain. And as nobody’s done it before, I’m really excited at the idea that I get to invent my version of him.”
Strong previously appeared in Green Lantern, as Hal Jordan’s mentor-turned-foe Sinestro, though he didn’t really have the chance to cut loose in that movie. And while fans might question why Shazam! did not include the character’s most popular foe in Black Adam, the actor isn’t eager to doubt the source material.
“You can’t really question the original comic books. I mean, if they felt that he was a worthy nemesis and that there was enough to do with him to enable him to create constant complications for Shazam, maybe that’s why there aren’t other villains in that universe, or there aren’t many anyway, because he’s really quite a good foil. They do always say, don’t they, that the hero is only as good as his villain. I’m hoping to make Sivana really iconic,” Strong said.
While Sivana will have a firm grasp of science, he’ll also be aware of the magic that exists in the DC Films universe. And his knowledge of the Wizard makes him question why the young Billy Batson will be gifted these abilities.
“He can’t understand it. You know, he can’t understand that the Wizard has chosen this boy as his champion,” said Strong. “Yet, the Wizard’s chosen a boy, and he realizes that obviously that boy manifests his self into the man, the Zachary [Levi] version of Shazam, and to him, it’s a source of total incomprehension, why this boy should have been chosen over him. It just justifies him in his quest to unify the good force and the evil force, and be in control of all of it.”
We’ll see how Billy fares in the fight against Sivana when Shazam! premieres in theaters on April 5th.
