Fresh from the box office success of Annabelle: Creation, director David F. Sandberg is now turning his attention to the DC Extended Universe and his next project, Shazam!. Speaking to Film Riot (via Heroic Hollywood), Sandberg has provided an update on Shazam!, confirming that the script is ready and it will be the next DC movie to go into production after Aquaman.
“There’s a script, it’s the next DC movie to shoot,” said Sandberg, who also confirmed that Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam will no longer feature in the film. “There’ve been variations of the script, like before I came along, where… you know, variations where Black Adam was in and out and, you know. But now, this is about Shazam.”
Sandberg also talked about which comic books he’s been reading in preparation for the project: “I’m taking it all in. Some of those really old ones are quite fun, when he’s, like, fighting Hitler. Stuff like that. No, cause he’s been around since the 40s for, like, as long as Superman. So there’s a lot to read and that’s also interesting because he sort of has a couple of different origin stories or a couple of different takes on it. You know, you have the most recent sort of Geoff Johns version and then you have Ordwell version and then you have those really old versions.”
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As yet, there’s no word on any casting for Shazam!, but with the film currently slated for release on April 5th 2019, we should probably expect to hear some official announcements very soon.