With Shazam moving full steam ahead towards production, actor Mark Strong has now officially confirmed that he is on board the DC Extended Universe solo movie in the role of Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, who he describes to Contact Music as “an evil bastard”.
“I’m playing an evil bastard called Doctor Sivana, they are always the best characters to play, the most fun”, said Strong. “I was Sinestro in Green Lantern, which I though was a rather good film, but it didn’t do what they wanted. So I feel like I’ve got unfinished business in the DC world. I played a pretty evil character in that, and he was meant to get even worse in the second one but that never happened, but I think I’m going to get the chance to do that in Shazam!, I hope so. I’ve been training like a mad man. I’m about to go over and see the stunt guys, I’ve been trying all of these harnesses on and I think I’m going to be doing lots of flying around and firing electricity out of my hands.”
Meanwhile, in other Shazam news, The Wrap is reporting that Ron Cephas Jones (Luke Cage) is in final talks to portray the character of The Wizard, who is responsible for bestowing magical powers upon young Billy Batson, allowing him to transform into the adult superhero Shazam.
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Shazam will see Zachary Levi starring as the titular superhero, with Asher Angel as his young alter-ego Billy Batson, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vasquez, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana and Ron Cephas Jones as the Wizard. The film is set for release on April 5th 2019.