Comic Book Movies already face a lot of negative speculation and critical thumbs down from their often contentious fanbases, but sometimes one of the biggest risk factors to box office success comes from the film itself. Getting positive press and public relations is hard enough, but it’s particularly tough when a film has to get over a controversial hot take from a cast member.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is only the latest in a string of tentpole Marvel and DC-branded movies that were forced to deal with their stars aligning themselves with anti-vaccination positions. Even before the global pandemic, many A-listers were putting forth personal beliefs that vaccination is linked to other health concerns via political rallies, social media, and even their own books, despite a total lack of reliable scientific evidence supporting that view.
Here are the seven biggest comic book movie stars that have come forth with anti-vax views.
Zachary Levi
On Jan. 29, in response to a tweet reading “do you agree or not that Pfizer is a real danger to the world,” Zachary Levi tweeted “hardcore agree.” The response led many to believe that the Shazam! actor is anti-vaccine. The actor then tweeted out a Department of Justice fine against Pfizer totaling $2.3 billion for fraudulent marketing regarding the anti-inflammatory medication Bextra. While this may only mean that Levi is against “Big Pharma” overreach, the position is often correlated to anti-vaccination ideology. Ironically, Levi has described himself as a Libertarian, a position that tends to be extremely anti-regulatory when it comes to corporations.
Evangeline Lilly
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania star Evangeline Lilly aligned herself with anti-vax views twice in the past. The most recent saw Lilly attend a Jan. 2022 rally in Washington D.C. to protest vaccine mandates for COVID-19. Prior to the rally, Lilly raised eyebrows in March 2020 when she refused to follow self-quarantine protocols. She later issued an apology for her statement, telling the Independent her position was “dismissive, arrogant, and cryptic.” In an Instagram post following the Jan. 2022 rally, she seemed to align herself with a position of bodily autonomy, stating that “nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will.” In the same post, however, she added “this is not safe. This is not healthy.” This seems to indicate a suspicion that the vaccine itself presents a health threat, a position that is inconsistent with any major study.
Letitia Wright
Letitia Wright stirred up a storm of controversy in Dec. 2020 when she shared a 69-minute YouTube video from channel On The Table to Twitter. The video questioned the legitimacy of COVID-19 vaccines, and accused China of spreading the virus purposely. The video has since been removed from YouTube, and Wright apologized and temporarily left social media, but rumors of her alleged anti-vax sentiments persist to this day. They even returned to plague the actress when she was forced to stop filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever following an on-set injury. She has remained silent on her exact vaccination views ever since, and has refused to answer any questions on the matter, but Wright took to her Instagram Stories to criticize an article by The Hollywood Reporter regarding her stance, and demanded the publication “stop your disgusting behavior.” She maintains that her apology following the video still stands.
Jim Carrey
It’s been a long minute since Jim Carrey made a superhero movie, but years before Paul Dano drew his first question mark Carrey portrayed the Riddler on the big screen for Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. He’s been vocal about his anti-vaccination views in the past, specifically regarding those containing thimerosal. Thimerosal is a mercury compound used as an antiseptic and anti-fungal agent, which was added to vaccines during the ’30s to help prevent microbial contamination. The agent has since been removed from most vaccines at the insistence of those who, like Carrey, mistakenly believe the substance is the cause of autism in children. The claim has been scientifically debunked and, according to the CDC, “even after thimerosal was removed from almost all childhood vaccines, autism rates continued to increase, which is the opposite of what would be expected if thimerosal caused autism.”
Jessica Biel
She’s not in the canonical MCU, but Biel played Abigail Whistler in 2004’s Blade: Trinity, which technically makes her a Marvel star. In 2019, Biel joined forces with controversial anti-vaccine propagandist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lobby against California Senate Bill 276. The bill aimed to give the final say regarding medical exemption from the state’s required vaccines to the California Department of Public Health. Kennedy, the son of a former U.S. Attorney General and nephew of President John Kennedy, has compared childhood vaccinations to the Holocaust. Biel did push back against anti-vax claims, declaring on social media that she is not against vaccinations, but that she believes “in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what’s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment.”
Alicia Silverstone
This former Batgirl has a lot to say about childhood vaccination in her 2014 guide to fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood The Kind Mama. With no specific citation, Silverstone claims that vaccines are shots of “aluminum and formaldehyde,” according to The Daily Beast‘s review of the book. This statement is hyperbolic and easily disproved. She also cites “increasing anecdotal evidence from doctors who have gotten distressed phone calls from parents claiming their child was ‘never the same’ after receiving a vaccine,” a remark which literally contains the words “anecdotal evidence.” Suffice to say Silverstone’s advice about vaccination is about as scientific as her opinion that diapers are “pseudoscience.” Pseudoscience indeed.
Robert De Niro
And finally, the favorite talk show host of Joker himself, Robert De Niro. The 79-year-old actor has aligned himself with anti-vax advocates, and defended the inclusion of controversial anti-vaccination film Vaxxed in his 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. De Niro eventually removed the film from the festival due to increasing backlash from the medical and scientific communities, but that hasn’t pushed him to wash his hands of the debate altogether. In 2017, the actor participated in an anti-vax panel for the Children’s Health Defense (aka the World Mercury Project), an anti-vaccine organization chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. De Niro later told the Washington Post, in regards to Kennedy’s speech before the panel, “I thought what Bobby said was great. It was eloquent. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I agree with him 100 percent.”
