The DC fandom was sent into an excited frenzy a couple years back when it was first announced and confirmed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was going to be playing Black Adam, the powerful villain in the already-announced Shazam! film. Ever since then, however, one of the biggest questions in the DCEU has been who the studio would get to play Shazam himself, the magical alter ego of Billy Batson. As it usually goes with these types of questions, fans have been busy throwing out different names and possible casting decisions for the character for years, while anxiously waiting to see who actually ends up getting the role.

After a couple of years with little-to-no updates about Shazam!, The Rock has finally started to tease progress on the highly anticipated film. Predictably, with those updates, comes some more speculation and questions from the fans about when DC will announce a casting for Shazam, and most importantly, who it will be.

So far, no official announcements or rumors have come since The Rock's updates regarding the casting, but that hasn't stopped fans from continuing to throw names out nonetheless. Following the actor's various public comments about wanting to play the character too, artist BossLogic - who is notorious for his original fan art depicting various famous actors playing equally iconic comic book characters - just recently voiced his support for Baby Daddy's Derek Theler in the role by releasing a brand new piece of fan art depicting the actor as the character:

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I am all for @DerekTheler #Shazam V @TheRock #BlackAdam pic.twitter.com/8YcKqTwOLh— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) January 14, 2017

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Like with most of BossLogic's work, the piece makes a compelling case for Theler in the role, who's already physically equipped to pull off the character. Unfortunately, the biggest question is whether or not he's a high-profile enough star to enter DC's radar for the role right now, especially if they're going to try to find an actor who can hold his own onscreen against The Rock, which is a tall order for any actor - movie star or not. In terms of the multiple fan casting choices that have popped up for Shazam over the years, however, this is one of the most unexpected and interesting to come along so far.

Right now, Shazam! is set for an April 2019 release date, which means that fans can likely expect some more casting and creative updates for the film to come sometime this year. There's no word on when production is set to begin on it, and considering just how much is still unknown about the film, it'll likely be some time before any announcements like that are made. Still, though, with The Rock meeting with DC again about the film, hopefully this means the studio isn't too far away from announcing a director for the project, and then after that, some more cast members and characters... including and specifically, Billy Batson and his superpowered alter ego.

Source: BossLogic

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