I don't know if you heard yesterday's casting announcement for the "other" Captain Marvel - He Who Cannot Use That Name.* We've known for ages that Dwayne Johnson will be playing Black Adam - for so long that they had to give him his own movie while he waited. (Good call there - let things build)
Friday they finally cast the part of the adult version of Billy Batson in the upcoming Shazam! movie - Zachary Levi.
That's a bit of casting that seems like a natural fit. He's shown his ability to play a boy in a man's body as Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and over the course of the series, and continuing as Fandral The Dashing in the last two Thor movies, he's built himself up to handle the action roles. This could be a mighty fine thing. I can see a potentially excellent onscreen chemistry between The Rock and he when the inevitable meeting with Black Adam comes.
Hopefully, they'll come up with something (Captain Thunder?) that will let him say his name and avoid the ridiculous Freddy Freeman situation. Seriously - did decades of people mocking Captain Marvel Jr's inability to say his name without changing not factor at all when it came time to name our hero? Or is callng him Shazam another case of the modern comic editors hating heroes and intentionally having a laugh at his expense?
On a completely unrelated note - another news item caught my eye at the same time. Southwest Airlines is talking Live In-Flight Bands. Blasting music at a captive audience unable to escape or avoid it.
Didn't we read that was one of the ways they tortured prisoners in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it's only a natural evolution. Isn't this the airline that beat a passenger they didn't want recently?
Friday they finally cast the part of the adult version of Billy Batson in the upcoming Shazam! movie - Zachary Levi.
That's a bit of casting that seems like a natural fit. He's shown his ability to play a boy in a man's body as Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and over the course of the series, and continuing as Fandral The Dashing in the last two Thor movies, he's built himself up to handle the action roles. This could be a mighty fine thing. I can see a potentially excellent onscreen chemistry between The Rock and he when the inevitable meeting with Black Adam comes.
Hopefully, they'll come up with something (Captain Thunder?) that will let him say his name and avoid the ridiculous Freddy Freeman situation. Seriously - did decades of people mocking Captain Marvel Jr's inability to say his name without changing not factor at all when it came time to name our hero? Or is callng him Shazam another case of the modern comic editors hating heroes and intentionally having a laugh at his expense?
On a completely unrelated note - another news item caught my eye at the same time. Southwest Airlines is talking Live In-Flight Bands. Blasting music at a captive audience unable to escape or avoid it.
Didn't we read that was one of the ways they tortured prisoners in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it's only a natural evolution. Isn't this the airline that beat a passenger they didn't want recently?
How i imagine the press announcement, with a little help from Alex Ross
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*(When DC comics bought the rights to the old Fawcett line, including Captain Marvel, they didn't register the accompanying trademarks. Marvel decided they could find a use for that name and filed registration papers. So, even though Captain Marvel existed first, they haven't been able to use his name in publication titles for decades. Transitioning to movies only complicates things, and the name cannot be used at all. So they've taken to calling the character Shazam, inlcuding a promotion from captain to wizard. So now he needs to wear a name tag since he cannot speak his name without transforming into Billy Batson. D'oh!)
