Shooting on DCEU entry Shazam! has wrapped, but there's still a piece of casting to announce, one that director David F. Sandberg and his team have somehow been able to keep quiet: Djimon Hounsou is playing The Wizard.
The film focuses on teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who can become the hero (played by Zachary Levi) by saying the word, “Shazam!” which grants him the powers of six mythological gods. That power comes from the Wizard, a 3,000-year-old sorcerer who has been on a quest to find a successor, and thinks Billy could be that man. Or boy. Or both...
Back in January, word arrived that This Is Us actor Ron Cephas Jones was the choice to play the character, but scheduling issues meant he never ended up in the cast; Hounsou worked on the film, but news of his hiring didn't break until Entertainment Weekly's story.
Shazam! will be in cinemas on 5 April next year. Hounsou has also been working on the other side of the movie superhero world, returning as Guardians Of The Galaxy's Korath The Pursuer for Captain Marvel, out on 8 March.
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