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Mark Strong Confirms Doctor Sivana Role in SHAZAM

A couple months ago, it was reported that Mark Strong was in negotiations to join New Line’s Shazam as the villain, Doctor Sivana. In the comics, Sivana is traditionally Captain Marvel Shazam’s arch-nemesis, and with Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam moving on to his own film, it makes sense to put him in this movie. Now, it’s confirmed.

At the premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s OVO in London, Strong confirms to Celebretainment that he is playing the Shazam villain. Following his role as Sinestro in 2011’s Green Lantern, Strong is happy to get a second chance in the DC Universe. “I’m playing an evil bastard called Doctor Sivana, they are always the best characters to play, the most fun. I was Sinestro in Green Lantern, which I thought was a rather good film but it didn’t do what they wanted, so I feel like I’ve got unfinished business in the DC world. I played a pretty evil character in that and he was meant to get even worse in the second one, but that never happened. But I think I’m going to get the chance to do that in Shazam!, I hope so.”


Strong goes on to call the film “funny” and say that there’s a lot of secrecy surrounding the script, which is the norm for big superhero movies. He then discusses his training, teasing Sivana’s powers. “I’ve been training like a mad man, I’m about to go over and see the stunt guys, I’ve been trying all of these harnesses on and I think I’m going to be doing lots of flying around and firing electricity out of my hands.” This would be a little different from the comics’ portrayal of Sivana, who was a genius-level intellect. But, it also makes sense to make him a physical match for Shazam, in addition to intellectual.

Shazam is set to hit theaters on April 5th, 2019. The seventh installment in the DC Films Universe stars Asher Angel, Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Grace Fulton, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, and Faithe Herman. David F. Sandberg directs from a script by Henry Gayden.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WOBAM! Entertainment.