Despite Warner Bros. having said they planned to develop a Shazam movie years ago, that didn’t make me any less surprised to hear that not only is it finally happening, but also that filming is expected to commence early next year. Sure, the studio has found another bankable hero aside from Batman in the form of Wonder Woman, but it never hurts to have a few more aces up your sleeve.

Expected to be one of the funnest movies based on a DC Comics property to date, one would fully anticipate a project such as this to be nothing less. After all, the reason this character has resonated with readers since the Golden Age is due to the simple, ingenious concept of a boy who attains superpowers via the use of a magic word. Really, doesn’t that sound like every kid’s fantasy?

So, naturally, it comes as no surprise that two actors are being sought to co-headline this movie. One, of course, being intended to fill the role of the adult hero that is Shazam (don’t call him Captain Marvel), with the other playing Billy Batson, the young boy himself.

As it turns out, director David F. Sandberg just recently took to his Instagram account to tease that pre-production is now underway. Granted, all he included in his “Day 1” post was a can of Coca-Cola Zero, but that carbonated beverage may end up giving birth to one of 2019’s sleeper hits.

Unfortunately, not much else can be said regarding Shazam at the moment, aside from that Black Adam won’t be included due to the fact that he’s getting his own separate movie. Thus, we fully expect the Big Red Cheese to do battle with Doctor Sivana or some other major villain.