Zachary Levi makes a cringey International Women’s Day post one week before ‘Fury of the Gods’ drops

Maybe Zachary Levi needs to get in touch with his bosses at DC Studios and see if he can’t borrow some of Shazam!’s “wisdom of Solomon” until Shazam! Fury of the Gods makes it into theaters. Or at least take a vacay from social media for the week leading up to its premiere. The Chuck actor just can’t seem to stop making tone-deaf posts on his Instagram — and he isn’t doing the Shazam! sequel any favors with his cringiness.

Proving that his superpower may just be a stunning inability to read the room, Levi used the occasion of International Women’s Day to re-share a video by TikTok user chaseejamess that struck some as ill-timed at best. The parodic video features comedian Chase James posing as an influencer with the over caption stating that the video was supposed to be “the girl who told you to kill yourself in 9th grade’s International Women’s Day Post.”

While James’ original video seems to be intended as a jab at the hypocrisy of influencers using the holiday to monetize their brand, some on social media found Levi’s re-post to be a case of the wrong person at the wrong time, especially as many of Levi’s Libertarian values are coming under scrutiny — not to mention just days before the premiere of his tentpole DC film.

Levi has been racking up quite a list of social media gaffes this year, ever since January when he quote-tweeted a Twitter post critical of the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Pfizer stating “hardcore agree” to the idea that the company is a threat to the world. Pfizer manufactures the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and many took the Tweet as an expression of anti-vaccination sympathy.

The actor also landed in hot water after praising controversial conservative intellectual figure Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan and drew even more online ire when he seemed to be mocking Britney Spears and her much-maligned conservatorship.

Some users are calling the post a dog whistle for an anti-feminist stance (original poster James’ online politics, where visible, seem to run more toward the left progressive side). Others are wondering whether or not this will be one straw too many for DC, who have had to smooth ruffled feathers over Levi’s stances before. For the time being it seems like the actor feels that he is safe in expressing whatever opinion he cares to. Perhaps his close friendships with DC CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran will assure that his superhero will continue into the company’s future.