DC Entertainment has turned to Disney to find their lead for their ‘Shazam!’ film! Asher Angel has been signed to play Billy Batson in the upcoming film.
Angel is mainly known for his role as Jonah Beck on the Disney channel series ‘Andi Mack’ but has appeared in guest spots on Nickelodeon’s ‘Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, Dawn’ and CBS’ ‘Criminal Minds.’ He just finished production on an indie film titled ‘On Pointe’ in the role of Alex. The role of Billy Batson will be the actor’s big break and if the film does well at the box office, it could be a franchise Angel stay in and can continue to play even as he gets older.
The film ‘Shazam!’ is based on the superhero story about young Billy Batson who, when he utters the acronym of five particular real and mythological people, would turn into the adult superhero Captain Marvel, aka Shazam. Each character represented an aspect of the superhero: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury.
Angel will be joining Zack Levi who has signed on to play the titular superhero and Billy’s counterpart, Mark Strong who will be the leading villain in the film (because you know superhero films always contain more than one bad guy), and Grace Fulton who has been added for an undisclosed role. David F. Sandberg is helming the project based on a screenplay by Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke.
‘Shazam!’ is slated to go into production early next year with an expected April 2019 release.
