It turns out that the recently revealed ‘Shazam!’ casting descriptions are “bullsh**,” at least according to director David F. Sandberg. In the descriptions, the film’s main villain, Thaddeus Sivana is described as an “Evil sorcerer who regenerates from death with world domination on his mind.”
Sandberg didn’t mince words when he took to Twitter to react:
Those character breakdowns are bullshit. Sivana is definitely not a reanimated sorcerer.
As you can see, this rebuttal came accompanied by a photo of the cast at a table reading of the script. You can see stars Zachary Levi and Asher Angel hard at work.
Add to this, a recent comment by Mark Strong, the actor who is playing Sivana:
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”I’m playing an evil bastard called Doctor Sivana, they are always the best characters to play, the most fun. I was Sinestro in Green Lantern, which I thought 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.”
Yes, Sivana is and has always been a mad scientist, not a sorcerer of any kind. Of course, if they changed that, it wouldn’t be the first time a movie adaptation has taken huge liberties with the source material. But fans can rest assured that at least in this case, ‘Shazam!’ will remain true.
At the same time that this false Sivana character breakdown was released, those for his children Beautia and Magnificus were also included:
BEAUTIA SIVANA – “Sivana’s devoted daughter. When he does not return her love, she changes loyalties and helps Billy out.”
MAGNIFICUS SIVANA – “Sivana’s incredibly giant and strong son that has a huge battle with Shazam.”
Plus two others:
SHAZAM – “Elderly wizard who is forced to give his powers to a young boy before the boy is ready.”
MYSTERIOUS MAN – “Shazam’s underling.”
If the last two aren’t 100% accurate, they should at least be close, as these are definite parts of the comic book story. Beautia and Magnificus are also characters from the comics but are fairly obscure. Both wind up siding with the good guys in classic comics but aren’t often seen in modern tales. More often, Sivana employs the aid of his ugly, lookalike kids Georgia and Thaddeus Jr.
Now that work has begun on ‘Shazam!’ expect more updates as things progress.
Are you glad that the Sivana/sorcerer casting proved to be false?
Directed by David F. Sandberg, ‘Shazam!’ stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Cooper Andrews, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand and David J. MacNeil and strikes theaters on April 5, 2019.
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
