It's official! Filming is underway on Shazam! The latest cinematic DC superhero movie hails from Annabelle: Creation and Lights Out director David F. Sandberg, who re-teams with the folks at New Line Cinema for the "magical super hero action adventure". Zachary Levi stars in the title role alongside Asher Angel as his young counterpart -- a boy named Billy Batson who can transform into an adult superhero with the help of some old school magic.

New Line has officially announced the start of production today, though it looks like filming got underway last week, they've also released the first detailed plot synopsis. Check it out below:

"We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong)."

 

Shazam! Also stars Mark Strong as the villainous Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, IT breakout Jack Dylan Grazer as Billy's best friend and "ultimate superhero enthusiast," alongside Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, and Ron Cephas Jones as the Wizard.

Shazam! reunites with his Annabelle: Creation creative team, including DOP Maxime Alexandre,  production designer Jennifer Spence, editor Michel Aller, and costume designer Leah Butler. Peter Safran (Aquaman) is the producer with Christopher Godsick, Jeffrey Chernov, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia are serving as executive producers.

The press release describes the hero as "firmly set in the DC universe but with his own distinctly fun, family centric tone," and indeed, it will be interesting to see what the film brings to the catalogue of DC movies and how it fits in with the existing cinematic universe. It's worth noting that the film comes from New Line, a branch of Warner Bros., not Warner Bros. proper, which suggests a shakeup from the DC movies we've seen in the last few years.

We'll see how it all comes together when Shazam! hits theaters on April 5, 2019.