With the fan war brewing between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe, "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn has stepped in to call for a discussion about a certain superhero — Shazam.
Zachary Levi is set to star in the "Shazam!" adaptation which will be directed by David F. Sandberg. The movie will appear after two other DCEU movies, Zack Snyder's "Justice League" and James Wan's "Aquaman." Levi has appeared in MCU movies like "Thor: The Dark World" and the recently released "Thor: Ragnarok" as the character Fandral.
With the confirmation of Levi's casting as the new DC superhero this week, the actor identified his character as the original Captain Marvel, which some Marvel fans did not like.
Gunn took to Twitter to address some the fans' displeasure towards Levi and set the record straight. The "Guardians of the Galaxy" director said that Levi is in the right to refer Shazam as the original Captain Marvel.
For a little bit of history, Billy Batson aka Shazam was a creation of Bill Parker and C.C. Beck for Fawcett Comics back in 1939. The superhero made his first appearance in "Whiz Comics #2" in February 1940, bearing the name of Captain Marvel.
DC Comics then sued Fawcett Comics for their apparent Superman rip-off. With the closure of Fawcett Comics, DC Comics later on acquired its intellectual properties but Marvel Comics already had their own Captain Marvel and a trademarked name to boot.
Since DC can't use Captain Marvel anymore, they opted to name the character Shazam.
Shazam has the powers of six gods: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury, and gains access to them whenever Billy utters the word "Shazam!"
Meanwhile, Brie Larson is set to play the heroine in her own stand-alone film for MCU. Hopefully, Gunn's assurance will lead to unity between fans of Marvel's "Captain Marvel" and DC's "Shazam."
