Zachary Levi‘s recent social media activity has made last week’s somewhat mixed reactions to the latest Shazam! Fury of the Gods trailer look small-fry in terms of creating a PR disaster for the incoming DC sequel. The Billy Batson star has decided that now is the best time for him to out himself as Pfizer critic, thereby revealing that he’s got more in common with fellow superhero actor anti-vaxxers like Letitia Wright and Evangeline Lilly than we previously realized.
Before this, Levi seemed like perhaps the only old-school DCEU lead who had a clear shot at surviving James Gunn and Peter Safran’s franchise personnel purge, seeing as he’s a close friend of both DC Studios CEOs. However, the up-shot of this unexpected controversy is that folks are convinced he’s just squandered his chances of getting a Shazam! 3 made and Levi will now be joining the likes of Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, and the rest in the Phantom Zone of axed DC actors.
In light of these developments, then, The Rock’s refusal to have anything to do with the Shazam! saga is actually proving to be a smart move on his part. We all know Dwayne Johnson overshot the hype for Black Adam, with the embarrassing failure of the film blowing up in his face. So when news first emerged that he’d turned down the opportunity to cameo as Teth-Adam in Fury of the Gods, folks hit back at him for allegedly thinking himself better than BA‘s sister superhero sub-franchise.
If Fury of the Gods is now set to be as mired in scandal and bad publicity as, well, basically every other DC production, though, there was a lot of wisdom in Johnson’s decision to distance himself from the Shazam! sequel. After his grand DC debut in 2022 didn’t go as planned, The Rock seriously needs to separate himself from that universe, so giving this movie a miss was likely the right move. Even if it did mean that Levi never got to achieve his goal of punching Johnson in the face.
We’ll see if Shazam! Fury of the Gods can pull it together and end up as a much-needed win for DC once it enters theaters on March 17.
