‘Shazam!’ Director Responds To ‘Aquaman’ Easter Egg Theory

New Line Cinema and DC Films’ upcoming Shazam! movie is going to be the most self-aware entry in the DC Extended Universe thus far. Not because we will be seeing Shazam (Zachary Levi) breaking the fourth wall like Deadpool, but rather that the characters in this film are aware of the world of superheroes that they live in. Easter Eggs to different DCEU heroes such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman have been present in the first teaser trailer we received from San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year.

Now, a DC fan on Twitter may have spotted yet another Easter Egg that can be tied to Aquaman in some form. In the scene where Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is on the subway train, we see an advertisement for an aquarium where we see a silhouette of what looks like a young boy looking at the fish in the tank. Obviously, this fan ties it back to young Arthur Curry as seen in Aquaman:

This same fan asked director David F. Sandberg if we will ever get confirmation about whether this aquarium advertisement is a tie to Aquaman and if that young boy is also Arthur Curry. Sandberg responded as follows:

YOU WILL NEVER GET AN ANSWER — David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) November 25, 2018

This could certainly be coincidence, but we do see Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) don an Aquaman shirt in the trailer, so it is possible that this is in fact a nod to young Arthur Curry.

Shazam! is the highly anticipated first installment of the DCEU in 2019. David F. Sandberg has directed the film with Zachary Levi starring in the titular role of Billy Batson’s alter-ego Shazam. The studio has now released a new synopsis for the film which you can read below:

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

Directed by David F. Sandberg, the film stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Faithe Herman, Cooper Andrews, and Marta Millan.

Shazam! comes to theaters on April 5, 2019.