'Shazam!' Director Reminds Brie Larson Fans Who the Original Captain Marvel Is

It's a matter of confusion among nerds stretching back decades, and it's only going to get more [...]

By Joe Schmidt

It's a matter of confusion among nerds stretching back decades, and it's only going to get more intense in 2019: Captain Marvel or Shazam!?

DC Comics will put out their superhero film starring the original Captain Marvel, though they've since abandoned that title, one month after Marvel Studios puts out their own film called Captain Marvel, who was created much later than the Fawcett Comics version.

It looks like Shazam! director David F. Sandberg is already dealing with that confusion, as evidenced by a recent post on social media.

Because Marvel has the trademark for Captain Marvel, they are allowed to publish comics and other media that are actually titled 'Captain Marvel,' while DC Comics has published their own Captain Marvel comics as Power of Shazam or Trials of Shazam and other variations.When they did the New 52 relaunch in 2011, DC finally relented and partially gave up on using the name Captain Marvel, referring to the superhero as Shazam!

But what's in a name? For Billy Batson, everything, as it's where the young man derives his magical super powers. Bestowed those abilities by a wizard named Shazam, when Billy says that name, he turns into the Zachary Levi-esque superhero.

With a ton of superhero movies coming out in 2019, including Marvel's own version of Captain Marvel, there's a lot of pressure to stand out from the competition. But Sandberg doesn't think Shazam! will have a problem achieving this goal.

"It's such a unique character, and it is that wish fulfillment of a kid that gets to become an adult superhero, which we haven't seen before, really," Sandberg told EW. "So it's just a really fun movie that has its own style."

"But by the way, I think very deftly put into the hands of someone who has such an incredible vision as yourself, and you have such awesome style yourself, so you get to bring that [to this movie]," added Levi. "That's one of the reasons I was very excited about it was watching your previous work, that has nothing to do with a family-friendly superhero genre."

We'll see how fans respond to Shazam! when the film premieres in theaters on April 5, 2019.

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