'This Is Us' star Ron Cephas Jones in talks to play the Wizard in 'Shazam'

Shazam begins shooting in Toronto next month, but they're still rounding out the cast. According to The Wrap, This is Us star Ron Cephas Jones is in talks to play the Wizard.

In the comics, The Wizard gives young Billy Batson the magical powers to transform himself into an adult superhero by yelling "Shazam!". He also gave powers to Black Adam who will be played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a future movie, not Shazam.

The movie stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson and Zachary Levi as Shazam. It hits theaters on April 5, 2019.

SOURCE: The Wrap

31 comments

Godspeed

January 18, 2018

he also was in Luke Cage. Decent enough actor. Lets see what he does with the role.

Godspeed
January 18, 2018
Didn't see that one so wouldn't know. I know him primarily from Cage.

NinjaGamer13

January 18, 2018

Haven’t seen him in anything, but appearance-wise, he definitely has a cool, unique, older look to him.

ShobiNaq
January 19, 2018
he was in luke cage. Was great in it.

TheHummuss

January 18, 2018

Dang... that is actually some dope casting there

kan

January 18, 2018

One word....SHAZAM!

UltimateBadass

January 18, 2018

He was really good in This Is Us. I do feel like Shazam will be a success due to the people involved especially David and Zachary and the intersting lore of Shazam which will interest both kids and adults alike other than us DC Fans . Looking back, Solo DCEU movies, MoS and WW have had little to no studio interferences affecting the quality of the movie but WB gets nervous with team up movies. They got away with it with the butchered BvS(Theatrical cut) & Suicide Squad, financially, but failed with JL as the critical negativity had already been spread due to their own actions . Aquaman with James Wan on the Helm should have little trouble with studio interferences. Let's be hopeful, atleast for the upcoming Solo Movies.

kan
January 18, 2018
Don't forget the 2011 Green Lantern movie WB execs COMPLETELY ruined. That was the movie that was supposed to kick off the DCEU.
This is a good summary;
"While Marvel Studios pretty much has the run of their own cinematic universe as far as the studio bods at Disney are concerned, Green Lantern followed in a long line of DC Comics movies at Warner Bros that were largely overseen by the studio's executives. Joel Schumacher's Batman movies, Catwoman, and Jonah Hex all smack of ham-handed meddling by producers who don't understand the material, but you rarely see a film with so many hands on it ending up as paint-by-numbers as this one."
1. J.K.2019
  January 18, 2018
  Those executives also worked at Dark Knight rises, You know that?...
  1. kan
    January 18, 2018
    Nolan supposedly had a sound contract, ie, creative freedom. You could tell his trio of movies were not tainted by WB meddling.
    1. J.K.2019
      January 18, 2018
      Do you know the reason why Nolan enjoys that creative freedom and the likes of Zack Snyder don't?....Do you also know why wb is willing to give complete creative freedom to Matt Reeves?...
    2. kan
      January 18, 2018
      I would guess, and probably bet, that it depends on how much influence the director has. Nolan is at the top of the pecking order, so I am sure if WB wanted him, they had to concede.
      If you followed the making of Ayer's SS and Synder's films, you could see these directors were clearly "yes men" and let WB step on all their projects.
      I can't believe Ayer's is doing the Birds of Prey movie. I am sure that will be another shit show.
    3. J.K.2019
      January 18, 2018
      The main reason is that they have repeatedly made critically and financially successful movies which earned PROFIT.So, They have earned their freedom
      WB didn't hesitated one bit when Nolan asked them a million dollar check for a war movie.And, They gave Matt Reeves final say on a new Batman trilogy.
    4. kan
      January 18, 2018
      Yes, but many top tier director's, especially in 2017 walked away from the DC/WB projects during negotiations, such as Guillermo del Toro (wanted to do JL Dark,) Seth Grahame-Smith (Flash - sited creative differences and walked) and many more. Wan who is now directing Aquaman was going to leave after signing....
      "Wan saw how Warner Bros. had suddenly put their hands all over Snyder’s Batman v Superman and Ayer’s Suicide Squad, and he threatened to leave unless they left him alone to make Aquaman as he saw fit.
      They agreed. He stayed."
    5. J.K.2019
      January 18, 2018
      When did James Wan threatened to leave?.....There were rumors of him leaving but those turns out to be false.He dispelled those rumors himself by standing in-front of Aquaman poster.Not to mention that James Wan has been very enthusiastic about wanting to make Aquaman.
      Many credible directors haven't accepted wb offer but there are also many directors who have joined like Matt Reeves, James Wan, Joss Whedon and then there are the likes of Matthew Vaughn who are interested in joining dceu.Also, The likes of Martin Scorsese, todd Phillips wanting to do a joker solo movie.
      But, You seems to be blaming everything on wb.What about the director who made bad movies which repelled the good filmmakers from joining dc.While, The complete opposite happened with Marvel where everyone wants to join them.
    6. kan
      January 18, 2018
      They were not rumors. It hit most of the news, I remember, around summer 2016...look it up.
      Matt Reeves actually walked away from negotiations and then came back and signed. I assume, and we are all hoping, it is because WB conceded to giving him creative freedom. Who knows, it could also be about money. Some could say Joss was doing the bidding of WB execs to fix Synder's mess, so it will be interesting to see how the Batgirl movie turns out. I like Whedon btw.
      I am not sure what your point is. Like I said, it all depends on how influential the director is to be able to stand their ground.
      Edit to add the following...
      You keep editing your post change/add. So, to answer your "new" last paragraph, all you have to do is know the films history in the making starting from Schumacher's Batman, Catwoman, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, SS, and the Snyder films to see that in each and every case, they were plagued by WB execs meddling. Kind of hard to say it is not the WB fault.
    7. josh0909
      January 18, 2018
      Wan never threatened to leave anything. Even made a twitter post about the BS rumor started by Devin Faraci being false. Also if we're going to sit here and list out directors who walk away from studios then we'll be here all day. Antman went through 4 directors and Thor dark world went through 3 alone
    8. kan
      January 18, 2018
      Wan released a PR piece to do damage control later. It is not about director's leaving, it is about how WB execs have meddled in many DC films ...and ruined them.
    9. josh0909
      January 18, 2018
      A PR piece to his personal twitter? Ah I see.
    10. Davonedoyle
      January 18, 2018
      you sound like an conspiracy theorist. that wasnt PR.
    11. Devo
      January 18, 2018
      I get what you’re trying to get across, but Nolan was forced by studio to use characters he didn’t want to use in TDKR, which affected the final product and we don’t know how much freedom Matt reeves has at least until the film goes into theaters. His last Apes film, while good, did not make the money its predecessor did.
      Clearly Zack had a lot of creative freedom until the film hit the editing room, and with BvS, the edits were merely for time and to get rid of that R rating. It wasn’t until justice league that they really started meddling with Zack. When it’s all said and done, it doesn’t matter who you are as a director, eventually the studio will force you into something you don’t want to do and you either go with it or you leave the project, possibly facing lawsuits and scrutiny.
J.K.2019
January 18, 2018
Seriously, Do you expect a studio to release a three hour movie in this era which cost them over $400 million?......The only one to blame here is hack snyder who should have known better.Civil War, Wonder Woman barely had any additional footage.That's how good directors roll.
Not to mention that director cut was still garbage.It faced the same problems of terrible villains, Weak story-line, Martha, Movie being bleak and boring, Turning Batman into a maniac who doesn't think twice before blowing up people, Superman in a emo and bad execution.

I'm Batman Man 39

January 18, 2018

Every time I hear news about Shazam, I get more and more excited! I think this movie has the chance to become something truly special, if production goes smoothly.

Hunter Zolomon
January 18, 2018
They haven't put a foot wrong at all so far, casting has been great and talk of the film has been great.
J.K.2019
January 18, 2018
Everything depends upon the director David.And, He has managed to convinced me with his funny posts on social media.Even if it gets low rating, I can still see the movie end up being very entertaining.
1. I'm Batman Man 39
  January 18, 2018
  His posts are hilarious! xD

Hunter Zolomon

January 18, 2018

I can see it and he's a good actor, no problems from me with this. This film is shaping up well.

J.K.2019

January 18, 2018

Gotta give it to the director, He sure as hell knows how to get publicity by casting one/two character at a time.

J.K.2019

January 18, 2018

BTW, Isn't it about time that Black Adam movie starts production.Rock was cast as Black Adam in 2014 and we still haven't heard anything about the filming start date.He was really great in Jumanji.He would be perfect as the Black Adam.

kan
January 18, 2018
I think he is suppose to make an appearance in SS2 first as Black Adam. The DC films are all up in the air now, so know one know for sure.

jrvc

January 18, 2018

I can see him as the character, this movie really is shaping nicely even if at first many (me included) were skeptical about it.

By the way, have anyone around here heard the rumour that Black Adam may do a camo appearance on this film?

Batman News Archive

'This Is Us' star Ron Cephas Jones in talks to play the Wizard in 'Shazam'

31 comments

Browse By Topic

Browse By Year