Well, it appears that General Zod wasn’t the only thing Man of Steel killed off. Even though they had a script and Peter Segal (Grudge Match) attached to direct, Warner Brothers decided not to move forward with production of the Shazam movie and Segal claims that Man of Steel was the reason why. He thinks that, due to Captain Marvel’s similarities with Superman, it would cause unfair comparisons between the two characters and leave the film stuck in the shadow of Man of Steel.
Honestly, I have a hard time disagreeing with him on this. I’ve only seen Captain Marvel twice on screen and both times he had to share it with Superman. Even when the people at DC Animated gave him his own origin movie he had to share it with Supes. When Captain Marvel isn’t working with or in direct conflict with Superman, Warner Brothers and DC just seem to have trouble knowing what to do with him.
Of course, given how much trouble Warner Bros. has had getting their other properties off the ground, it’s entirely possible they balked on this Shazam movie adaptation for different reasons (at this point I’m not sure anything would surprise me anymore).
Considering that Captain Marvel’s alter ego, Billy Batson, is a twelve year old kid, there were an overwhelming number of ways this production could have gone wrong anyway. The way I see it, one of two things would’ve happened with Batson. They would make Billy unbearably annoying (since movie studios seem to think this is how all kids should be written) or they would age him into an adult and likely alienate the fans.
Should DC be making a Shazam movie? Do you agree Peter Segal about DC’s motivations? Sound off in the comment section below.
Source: Screen Rant