Over the last few weeks, we've reported on several Shazam! casting updates. The latest addition will complete the Marvel Family.
According to ComicBook, child actress Faithe Herman, a series regular on NBC's This Is Us, will join star Zachary Levi in the David F. Sandberg flick. The website didn't confirm her character’s identity, and merely suggested that she was a "friend of young Billy Batson at a group home".
It wouldn’t take a great deal of research to deduce that Faithe’s character is DC Comics’ Darla Dudley. Darla was an African-American preteen who was adopted by Billy's foster parents after her birth parents abandoned her. In Flashpoint, Darla shared Billy's power at his whim, but unlike the other Family members, she wasn’t able to use his powers to transform into an adult.
The kids are collectively known as the Marvel Family in the comic books. In the upcoming live-action Shazam! adaptation, Asher Angel (Billy Batson) will be joined by Grace Fulton as Mary Batson, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, and Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña. Until October, when a leaked casting call indicated that Darla would indeed appear, there had been no mention of her at all.
It was recently revealed that Cooper Andrews would play Victor Vasquez, the Marvel Family members’ adoptive father. In addition, Mark Strong is expected to play big baddie Doctor Sivana.
Filming should begin early in 2018, but it looks as though preparations have already begun. Angel recently shared – and later deleted – a couple of photos he captured during a set visit. Check them out (via ScreenRant):
It may be a month or two before we catch a glimpse of Levi in his Shazam! costume, but the actor told a fan on Twitter that he’s seen it:
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup. ?âš¡ï¸ https://t.co/wia9VJlRsE
"” Zacovfefe (@ZacharyLevi) December 20, 2017
