One of the movies in the DC Extended Universe that is confirmed to be in development is "Shazam!" As the movie continues to progress in development, director David F. Sandberg has revealed that there will not be any de-aging involved for the titular character. Instead, two actors will be playing both Billy Batson and Shazam.
"Shazam!" centers around a kid named Billy Batson, who transforms into the adult superhero when he utters the name. Knowing how Billy turns into the superhero, it does pose a question as to whether there would be some de-aging involved, similar to what was seen in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." According to Sandberg, they will not have that in the film.
In an interview with Collider, Sandberg revealed that he does not want to do that and that it seems to be a hassle. He thought it would be best to have both a kid and an adult play the superhero. Despite the trend of being able to de-age an actor with computer-generated imagery (CGI) today, Sandberg does not want to get on that bandwagon. He said that while it is a nice move, citing Kurt Russell's youthful appearance in the first scenes of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," there is a limit to that as well.
"You probably can't do someone to be a kid, why create that hassle for yourself?" said Sandberg.
When Sandberg was asked what made him go from horror movies to "Shazam!" he said that in his previous works, it involved working with kids and it worked out very well. It will also be the case for the superhero movie as the main character is a kid who turns into an adult superhero.
Sandberg also teased that they are going into production for "Shazam!" very soon to maintain his momentum. When asked if he was going to use the same director of photography, Maxime Alexandre from his two films "Lights Out," and "Annabelle," he said that he wants to work with him as much as possible.
A release date for the "Shazam!" movie has yet to be determined.
