While John Glover played the role of Dr. Thaddeus Sivana's father in 2019's Shazam!, director David F. Sandberg recently revealed the Smallville alum was actually a very late addition to his DC film's cast."He didn't come on board until reshoots," Sandberg said of Glover's casting on Twitter. "Originally old and young dad were different actors but audiences were confused so we had John play both. He's awesome by the way. Imagine when I was a kid and saw Gremlins 2 that one day I'd work with that guy."
In Shazam!, Glover's Mr. Sivana was portrayed as rather bad father to Mark Strong's Dr. Sivana, clearly showing preferential treatment towards Thaddeus' older brother, Sid. As a grown man, Dr. Sivana would get revenge on his father and brother with the help of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Glover is certainly no stranger to starring in a DC Comics adaptation. In fact, he's not even a stranger to playing the father of a bald supervillain, having previously starred as Lionel Luthor -- the father of Superman's arch-enemy Lex Luthor -- on The WB's Smallville. He also appeared as Dr. Jason Woodrue in 1997's Batman & Robin, in addition to voicing DC characters in several films and television shows, including Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures and Superman: The Animated Series.
Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as the ancient wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez. The film is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.
