Those days are long past, but they’re still historically important, which is why Sandberg made sure that the Shazam costume in his movie partly reflected the Golden Age era.
That being said, Shazam’s costume also blended elements from other periods in the character’s existence, such as the hood from his New 52 reintroduction and the gold gauntlets from one of his animated movie appearances.
The superhero previously known as Captain Marvel has been a major player in the DC Comics universe since the 1970s, but back when he was still being published by Fawcett Comics, he was one of the most popular superheroes ever, even outselling Superman at one point.
Along with providing the first official Shazam! photo, which shows Zachary Levi’s Shazam and Jack Dylan Grazer’s Freddy enjoying some soda outside a convenience store, EW spoke with David F. Sandberg about the Shazam costume, namely with how he wanted the cape to harken back to arguably the characters’ heyday in the 1940s.