Details about Mark Strong’s Shazam! villain have come to light

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Without a doubt, the trailer for director David F. Sandberg's SHAZAM! was one of the best to be featured at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. The footage presents fans with what appears to be a light-hearted entry for DC's cinematic universe, with plenty of comedic beats and child-like wonder to separate the film from the studio's past efforts. While the trailer focuses heavily (and smartly) on the progression of 14-year-old Billy Batson's transformation into the adult superhero SHAZAM! (Zachary Levi), it does offer us a glimpse of the film's main villain, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, played by Mark Strong (KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, TV's DEEP STATE).

In searching for details related to SHAZAM!'s version of Dr. Sivana, Entertainment Weekly has discovered a few bits of information that you might be interested in knowing. To begin, you must first understand that the Dr. Sivana character has had numerous backstories throughout his long-standing comic book career. Be that as it may, the arch-nemesis played by Strong in SHAZAM! will be framed as a rejected hopeful of The Wizard's powers.

Let's backtrack just for a moment, shall we? In the film, Billy encounters a 3,000-year-old Wizard who, after seeing the purity of Billy's heart, offers him unimaginable power to help combat the forces of evil throughout the world. As it turns out, Sivana was offered the same deal as a child, but was ultimately turned away by the Wizard, after the magic man saw the darkness lurking within the young man's soul. Ever since that time, Sivana has made it his mission to siphon the abilities that Billy now wields in a desire to live up to the expectations of an oppressive father.

“Mark Strong loves being a bad guy,” director David Sandberg said. “And it’s not just him, really, it’s … something else … that lent him his powers … he can do some things that Shazam can’t. The danger in some films is the bad guy has the same powers as the good guy. [Sivana] has an extra thing, extra dynamic, that takes care of that….”

Now that you know a little more about Strong's Dr. Sivana, do you think that he'll make for a formidable villain against SHAZAM!? Also, if he was denied powers by the Wizard, how do you suppose he withstood SHAZAM!'s punch in the trailer? Has he perhaps found another way tobecome super strong, among other things? Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments section below.

SHAZAM! will arrive in theaters on April 5, 2019.