In Darby and the Dead, after suffering a near-death experience as a young girl, Darby Harper (Riele Downs) gains the ability to see dead people and spends her time counselling lonely spirits. When Capri (Auliʻi Cravalho), the Queen Bee of the school's most exclusive clique, dies in a freak hair straightening accident, her upcoming "Sweet 17" is (obviously) cancelled.
Capri, however, pleads with Darby from the other side to intervene and convince Capri’s friends to proceed with the party as planned. In order to appease the wrath of the undead diva, Darby must emerge from her self-imposed exile and reinvent herself - which along the way allows her to find new joy back in the land of the living.
Ahead of Darby and the Dead's release on December 2, we got to speak with the movie's cast. We'll bring you those interviews next week, but during our conversation with Asher Angel and Chosen Jacobs, we made sure to ask the latter about the future of the Shazam! franchise under the purview of the newly formed DC Studios.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods arrives in theaters next year, and Asher weighed in to share his excitement for this new era of storytelling and what that means for Billy Batson in the wider DCU. The actor also reveals his hopes to see Shazam "integrated" with other DC superheroes and for an eventual meeting with Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam.
His co-star, meanwhile, weighs in with his own comic book movie aspirations, and you can check out what they had to tell us below.
I’m a big DC fan, Asher, so I’d love to know how you’re feeling about James Gunn being in charge of DC Studios and your future in this new DCU?
Asher: Man, I feel really good. With Peter [Safran] and James coming on board. I mean, they’re obviously super talented and passionate, and I love how they’re creating this ten-year plan. I think the DC Universe…there’s a lot of special movies to come and I’m just ready for Shazam to be integrated with some other superhero movies. I mean, look, we’re not here to talk about Shazam or whatever, but I’m excited! I’m very grateful. It’s an incredible cast and I’m excited for the movie.
Black Adam just came out a few weeks ago, of course, so it must be exciting to think Billy could be crossing paths with that character played by The Rock down the line?
Asher: Yeah, for sure.
Chosen: It was great having a castmate and a friend who’s into DC. With the ten-year plan, there are a lot of movies for actors’ friends to be in…I know Shazam!
Asher: [Laughs] You’d be so good at it. You would kill it.
Chosen: I’d love to. It would be so much fun. Sign me up!
With reports swirling that the Shazam! franchise is one of Safran's favourites, we're sure Angel will have an exciting few years ahead of him playing Billy Batson. As for Jacobs, based on what we've already seen from him on screen - including in Warner Bros.' hit IT movies - we're sure the right superhero role will come his way before too long.
Darby and the Dead premieres on Hulu on December 2.