Shazam! type Movie genre Superhero

DC’s Shazam! movie has figured out how it’s going to handle the comic’s Captain Marvel history.

As fans know, Shazam! is the story of 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who can turn into a grown-up superhero (Zachary Levi) by saying the magic word (“SHAZAM!”). But the book was originally launched by Fawcett Comics in 1940 as “Captain Marvel” — which was also the name of the grown-up hero character. Then in 1967, Marvel Comics trademarked its own rather different Captain Marvel character, so when DC licensed Fawcett’s Captain Marvel in 1972 to revive the hero they had to change the comic book name to “Shazam.” When DC did its New 52 relaunch, it changed the character’s name from Captain Marvel to Shazam as well.

So how’s the movie going to handle the whole Shazam/Captain Marvel thing? The film has thrown out the Captain Marvel name and is fully embracing Shazam — though there could be a sly reference in the film to the switch.

“Let’s just say we’re going to have a bit of fun with that in the movie,” director David Sandberg (Lights Out) teases on the name change. “But he’s basically known as Shazam, which makes sense because of the confusion.”

As we’ve pointed out before, Captain Marvel is actually one of several things out there that are sometimes mixed up with Shazam!

Marvel’s Captain Marvel movie starring Brie Larson is scheduled to be released (March 8, 2019) within one month of Shazam! (April 5, 2019) next year.