Wham! Bam! But should we thank Shazam?
Kapow! Bam! Shazam! Who would have thought that a fighting caption used in comics would one day become a big budget movie in 2019? Well, if you’re a fan of DC Comics then you already know. Shazam! centers around Billy Batson, a teenager in foster care who has been searching for his mother ever since he got separated from her at a carnival when he was five. Billy’s continuous search has led him away from any foster family that might possibly care for him, and his pranks and penchant to run away certainly don’t help. But Billy is given one last chance when he is placed with the Vasquez family, a multi-racial family made up of foster children. Billy quickly finds himself in a pickle when a wizard turns him into a fully-grown adult with superpowers! Billy must turn to his new superhero-obsessed foster brother to help him navigate his powers and deal with an up-and-coming supervillain.
The movie opens with a family of two brothers and their father driving on a dark and foggy road. It is quickly established that the younger of the two boys, Thaddeus Sivana, is the lesser son in the father’s eyes, hence his need to turn to evil later when trying to prove himself. Thaddeus has a darker skin tone than both his brother and father (keep this in mind).
The film then skips ahead many years later to reveal an adult Thaddeus, played by British actor Mark Strong. Don’t get me wrong, Strong delivers a great villainous performance, but needless to say, I was confused as to why a white actor was portraying this role. A quick internet search revealed that I was not the only one perplexed by the sudden race change. Shazam! lost a great opportunity here to incorporate a person of color into their film. If you take a quick surface glance at the film’s cast, Shazam! seems pretty racially diverse. But when you watch the movie, you realize that all of the main characters are white males. One might think: “what’s the harm in adding in one more white guy?” since this film already has a wide array of non-white actors in its cast. However, all of the non-white actors in this film play very small roles.
The Vasquez family is made up of Asian, African-American, White, and Hispanic family members. This foster family is definitely the heart of the film, but not the center of it. The story really only focuses on Billy; his family members are background characters who are only actually featured in the last thirty minutes of the film. The only member of Billy’s new family who has as much screen time as he does is his sole white brother, Freddy. I do think it is important to note that in the comic books Freddy develops a walking disability from a run in with a supervillain, and although they do not show how he got it, Freddy’s disability is included in the movie (good job DC Films, we’ll give you kudos for that!). However, once again, this seems like a missed opportunity on DC Film’s part to incorporate a non-white actor. Similarly to Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer provides an on point portrayal of Freddy, who is arguably the second most important character in the film, but why does he also have to be a white male?
Shazam! is definitely a cute and fun family film with a good amount of humor and action, but when it comes to racial diversity, it somewhat misses the mark. Although it is clear the movie is certainly trying to be more racially inclusive, Shazam! might want to take a lesson from its DC sister show, Black Lightning, or Marvel’s Black Panther when it comes to featuring people of color as main characters instead of just minor ones.
