Shazam Full Cast Revealed: Explaining The Surprise Of The Shazam Family From The Movie

By Scott Collura

SPOILERS FULL forward for Shazam! And to learn more about Shazam!, Check out our review, our breakdown of end-credits scenes, and our explanation of the film's great shades.

In what appeared to be the kind of plot development that could be saved for a sequel, Shazam! totally went there and introduced the entire Shazam family in his third act – the Shazamily! The entire cast of Shazam! is even more impressive than you would have imagined, including Adam Brody and DJ Catrona in highly guarded secret roles. Browse the gallery below to discover the complete cast of Shazam !:

But who exactly are the Shazam family – formerly known as the Captain Marvel family – and what is their story? We will break it down …

The Shazam family is part of a long line of "families" of superheroes like the Batman family and the Superman family, except that these guys were basically the originals: a whole squad of superhero companions with powers and costumes very similar to those of the main hero.

The most recognizable members of the group, beyond the Big Red Cheese, are Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel. Their names, of course, go back to a time when Shazam! was still known as Captain Marvel and was not even a DC Comics character yet. (Check out the complete story of Shazam's complicated history here.) Appearing for the first time in Whiz Comics # 25 of Fawcett Comics (December 1941) and Captain Marvel Adventures # 18 (December 1942), respectively, Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel are the versions of Freddy Freeman and Mary Batson.

The Marvel family

Although the continuity of Captain Marvel / Shazam has been restarted several times over the years, in its original version, Freddy had received his powers from Captain Marvel after a near death encounter with a villain named Captain Nazi (yep). To access his powers, he had to say "Captain Marvel" rather than "Shazam" and he remained a teenager, even in his most perfect form. Mary Batson, meanwhile, was the twin sister of her Captain Marvel counterpart, Billy Batson (and just had to say "Shazam" to transform, which seems a little redundant).

At the time of the Fawcett, there were also Lieutenant Marvels, three boys also named Billy Batson and endowed with the power of Shazam. But they were all alike and wearing the same costumes, which was boring and contributed to the creation of Freddy and Mary.

Then we have Uncle Marvel, an impotent old man named Dudley, who claimed to be an uncle of Wonders. This was not the case, but he was anyway part of the family and attached a Shazam suit for what would probably be a dangerous adventure that he was ill-suited to face the other members of the group. And there were other characters like Mister Tawky Tawny (a talking tiger) and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny (uh huh) who looked more like peripheral members of the Captain Marvel family and to a lot of crazy people in the manner of Golden Age.

The various works of Captain Marvel / Shazam were very popular in the 1940s, but a lawsuit at DC Comics brought them to an end in the early 1950s. The characters remained in limbo for decades, before Ironically ending in DC, where a variety of reboots of their backgrounds and their stories took place over several years. More recently, the restart of New 52 of DC has established the version of the Shazam family to which the film primarily draws, starring Billy Batson and his adoptive siblings. Eugene, Pedro and Darla join Billy, Freddy and Mary.

The post-new family 52 Shazam

Of course, eagle-eyed fans will have noticed that some of the actors playing the Shazam family in the movie have already been imbued with DC's superheroism: Adam Brody and DJ Cotrona appeared as a family member and the two actors were chosen in the film of the League of Justice that never took place. George Miller (the Mad Max series) was to make this movie, called Justice League: Mortal, in the time before the creation of the DCEU, before Warner Bros. do not put the project in check in 2008. Cotrona would have played Superman and Brody the flash. But now, the optimized versions of Freddy and Pedro are played by Brody and Cotrona respectively.

We talked to Shazam! producer Peter Safran about the decision to play actors in these roles.

"They did not know that they were auditioning for superhero roles," laughed the producer. "We have not informed anyone of the nature of these roles. We created a fake scene for each of the adult children that fundamentally reflected their childhood personality and what they would be as adults. Adam Brody played the water goalkeeper in a basketball team that finally got the opportunity – the coach brought him into the game. And the adult Darla, it was Darla who was pbading a driving test and she was a mouth with full motor skills. So, they did not even know that they were going to play superheroes. They were delighted when they learned this because they … wanted to don these outfits for a long time and I think they were really happy to be able to play their superhero muscles.

What did you think of the Shazam family in Shazam !? Let us know in the comments!

Talk to Scott Collura, Editor, on Twitter at @ScottColluraor listen to his Star Trek Podcast, Transport Room 3. Or do both!