It’s no secret that the DCEU has erred on the darker side of the superhero spectrum, which is partly due to the nature of the characters. But early next year, the mood will get far lighter when Zachary Levi’s Shazam! hits the big screen.

Levi recently talked about what makes Billy Baston’s story so compelling and why Shazam is more relevant than ever.

“This premise is kind of almost the most iconic of all wish fulfillment premises,” Levi told Comic Book Resources. “And yet, for whatever reason, only now is this movie getting made. But haven’t we all sat around as children wishing we had the ability to just magically transform into our super self?”

Levi also admitted that he himself is a bit of a little kid trapped in an adult’s body, which made playing Shazam easy. It also adds to the charm and infectious joy that’s evident in the trailer. It’s this innocence that makes the film particularly relevant today, according to Levi.

“Honestly, I think the purity of it,” Levi said. “While we all like seeing movies that challenge us with their kind of darker underbelly of life and we need to shine lights on those things and tell those stories, there’s a lot of heaviness in the world and I think that it’s really beautiful when you can go and cheer for what’s just got a good heart that really does mean well and they’re trying to find their way in the world.”

Levi also argued that we need superheroes now more than ever, whether they’re on the big screen or in real life.

“We need heroes,” Levi said. “That’s why I think we flock to superhero movies. We wanna see ourselves in them, we do see ourselves in them, but we also feel kind of inspired and more hopeful there is good in the world that is vanquishing the evil in the world that is standing up for the everyman and going and trying to make a difference.”

Shazam! is set to hit theaters on April 5, 2019.

SOURCE: CBR