Ability over Appearance: Zachary Levi did bulk up properly for the role of the main hero, but even with that effort his build and features aren't quite what you'd expect for an old-fashioned superhero. Fans and critics alike have given him high praise for very effectively capturing the essence of a teenage boy suddenly turned into an adult Flying Brick.
Acting for Two: Director David F. Sandberg plays one of the Crocodile-Men and voices Mister Mind in the mid-credits scene.
Author's Saving Throw: Since the first trailer dropped, it was clear that they were using the New 52 origin story as a basis for the film, which caused some to worry about Billy Batson's portrayal. In the Post-Crisis continuity, he was a Cheerful ChildNice Guy, whereas the New 52 divisively made him jaded, cynical, and arrogant (albeit only initially). The casting of Asher Angel, known for playing Totally RadicalPerpetual Smilers, was taken as an encouraging sign that Billy Batson wouldn't be his New 52 self. The director took to Twitter and removed any lingering doubts when he said "He's not a huge dickhead" about his version of Billy.
Mark Strong has been openly enthusiastic about playing Sivana, describing him as an "evil bastard" and saying how those roles are always fun to play. (He has done a DC villain before, playing Sinestro in Green Lantern (2011)).
David F. Sandberg has been excited about doing a superhero film, especially for a character he didn't know that well. He also mentioned how much he loved voicing Mr. Mind, if only for a few lines, and his delight in performing the role is unmistakable.
California Doubling: The film is mostly set in Philadelphia, but was filmed in Toronto (with a team that was sent to Philly to take aerial views). This is specially noticeable on the subway scenes, which clearly use TTC cars, and Greenwood station was used as the place where Billy runs from the bullies.
The exterior of Sivana Industries' tower is actually the IDS Tower, in Minneapolis, the rest of whose skyline fills out the background of the establishing shot.
John Glover was 73-74 when playing Thaddeus Sivana's father, and did so for both the modern day and 1974 scenes (the character would be about 45 years younger in the latter).
Grace Caroline Currey plays Mary Bromfield who is a high school senior, thus a few years younger than her real age (early 20s).
Deleted Scene: The editor of the film, Michel Aller, revealed there are 20-24 minutes of deleted scenes of the film, (most of them turned out to be alternate scenes that weren't used). Amongst them:
An alternate beginning where Thaddeus Sivana is having Christmas lunch with his family (the scene also includes his mother and twin sisters, completely absence in the final cut). Mr. Sivana orders Sid to take away Thaddeus' magic ball and he runs away in an elevator where he encounters the Wizard Shazam. After not being accepted, he returns to his home, where he receives a fist from Sid.
The battle in the Christmas Village is a bit longer.
The Shazam Family sitting on the thrones. Mary notes that since there's only six of them, one is empty and wonders who it's for. Darla replies that no matter who it is, that person will automatically be part of the family.
A scene where Billy attempts to escape from the Vasquez home but he's stopped by Mary Bromfield.
An alternate ending where the Shazam Family built a new Christmas tree and prepare themselves to fight a new crime.
An alternate "Lighting with my Hands" scene (this time in a anonymus street instead of the Philadelphia Museum of Art). This scene was featured in the trailers.
An alternative scene of the Thaddeus Sivana's revenge on his family (this time taking place during a Christmas celebration in Sivana's mansion instead of the Sivana Tower).
Darla finds out that Freddy had been once again the victim of bullism from Brett Breyer.
A scene where Freddy, in his avatar form, flies near an airplane.
Darla blackmailing Billy into playing tea party as Shazam. She then asks him questions like how does it feel to be hit by the lightning and what happens to his clothes during the transformation.
Descended Creator: David F. Sandberg played two roles in the film. He was the creature performer for the Crocodile-Men and then lent his voice to Mister Mind in the mid-credit scene.
Dueling Dubs: There's two Japanese dubs: One for the theatrical and home video release, and another one for released for the Japanese cable channel "The Cinema", which sports a very different cast.
Dueling Movies: The star character has been known as "Captain Marvel" for a long time, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe released their own Captain Marvel movie less than a month before this one came out. Interestingly enough, Djimon Hounsou has a role in both movies.
Irony as She Is Cast: John Glover made his DC Comicsdebut as the supervillain The Riddler, whose first act of villainy was to target a belittling Corrupt Corporate ExecutiveAsshole Victim in retaliation for mistreating him and eventually broke him into fear. Now Glover here is in the reversal role as the belittling crooked businessman Asshole Victim who becomes a target of a supervillain he had mistreated in his first act of villainy and is reduced to a pleading Dirty Coward; and unlike the Riddler's first victim who survived, Glover's character in the film doesn't.
The Wizard Shazam said "Billy Batson, I choose you as champion." in the 2018 SDCC trailer. He doesn't say it in the film. Also, his face was in the dark in the trailer; it's not the case in the film.
When Billy-as-Shazam returns at the foster home and puts a message on the window, Freddy screams, then asks "What is happening...". The "What is happening..." bit is not in the film.
Playing Against Type: In the Japanese dub, Megumi Ogata's role as Billy goes somewhat meta for her, as she seldom works in foreign dubs, being her most recent dubbing job was voicing ADA in the Japanese version of Ingress (and also in the animated adaptation), and before that, her other dubbing jobs dates backs from the 2000s, being the Japanese dub of Hackers the last live-action dub she ever did before this film.
Production Posse: Sandberg has cast Grace Caroline Currey, Andi Osho and his wife Lotta Losten. Both Fulton and Losten appeared in Annabelle: Creation before, and Lotta Losten and Andi Osho also played in Lights Out.
Saved from Development Hell: The development of a Shazam movie started in 2000 with New Line Cinema, Peter Segal, John August working on the project, but went nowhere for several years. New Line Cinema was eventually bought by Warner Bros., and August left the production when film executives requested that the movie be made Darker and Edgier due to The Dark Knight being all the rage at the time. From there, the project shifted development from a movie to a television series in 2013 - but Peter Segal stated that, at that point, the adaptation was unlikely to happen. The film was saved in 2014 when DC and WB announced plans to adapt the character to film, and was confirmed to be in development later in the year, as part of the DC Extended Universe. David F. Sandberg was eventually announced to helm the film in July 2017.
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: Spoilering the rest of the Marvel family is one thing, but the action figures come with the Seven Deadly Sins as well... which are a lot smaller and differently colored from what you see in the movie.
Spoiled by the Merchandise: Basically all of the film's toylines prominently featured the superhero forms of Freddy and the other foster kids, something that the film itself doesn't reveal until the climax and the trailers, in a rare display of restraint, never even hinted at.
Ron Cephas Jones was initially chosen as the Wizard before the casting of Djimon Hounsou, but dropped out of the project due to scheduling commitments to This Is Us.
Originally, Black Adam was to debut in this film portrayed by Dwayne Johnson, but the producers decided to split the film into two origin films for both characters. Johnson does still have a producing credit on the film.
A Shazam movie was in development back in the early oughts, with writer John August attached. The film was shelved due to the failure of Speed Racer and the massive success of The Dark Knight, which caused WB to think that there wasn't an audience for a Lighter and Softer comic book movie.
The original script contained a cameo from Henry Cavill as Superman. After contract negotiations between WB and Henry Cavill's agents broke down (with Cavill's camp reportedly wanting a pay raise and increased creative control on future Superman-related projects), the plans were altered. In the finished film, Superman is simply played by a Fake Shemp (actually Ryan Handley, Zachary Levi's stunt double) whose face isn't shown.
The scene where Sivana reunites with his father and brother at Sivana Industries and kills them, along with innocent people, was originally going to be at a Christmas party in his mansion. The scene was shot but they decided to reshoot it at Sivana Industries.
There was going to be a scene early in the film between Billy and Mary when he was about to sneak out, but the scene was pulled out so they can get to Shazam's character.
During the fight with the Seven Deadly Sins, Mary, in her superhero form, taunts one of the Sins and punches them while she's laughing and also while she sings and dances. This scene was cut for time.
Djimon Hounsou voiced the Fisherman King in Aquaman before playing the Wizard in Shazam! As his performance in Aquaman is limited to giving King Ricou three lines it would be easy to overlook this connection.
Natalia Safran, who played Queen Rina in Aquaman also plays a scientist working for Dr. Sivana in SHAZAM!.
Being a New Line production, this movie has a much smaller budget than a typical studio superhero movie. Its $80-90 million budget is about half that of its predecessor in the franchise, Aquaman.
The movie infamously was the only movie available in some theaters in Australia and Mexico.
Sandberg's brother Joachim Sandberg makes a small cameo in the film as one of the extras in the mall fight scene.
Brody was previously cast as The Flash in George Miller's unmade Justice League: Mortal, along with D. J. Cotrona (who plays Pedro's superhero alter ego) as Superman.
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