Former “Shazam” star Zachary Levi says he’s ready to return to comic book movies.
Levi played Shazam first in the 2019 original, which became a surprise critical and commercial success. On the other hand, its far less well-regarded 2023 sequel “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” was one of several failed DCEU films released in 2023.
When that film failed, Levi famously and publicly pointed fingers at the mess that DC was behind the scenes prior to the Gunn-Safran takeover, as well as ‘online hate’. He essentially left Hollywood with a source telling THR last year: “When he was cast as Shazam, it was literally his dream. He thought this was his ticket to being The Rock or Chris Evans. But it didn’t happen for him, and he’s bitter about that.”
Now, speaking with FeatureFirst, the actor expressed interest in joining the DC Universe – be it reprising his Shazam role from the prior DCEU or an entirely new character:
“Listen, I love playing Shazam! It was one of the most fun experiences. I grew up watching Christopher Reeves‘ “Superman” and Tom Hanks in “Big,” and I got to be both in one role. And he’s such a fun role. I love my Shazamly, as we affectionately call it; every one of those actors, young and old. We really shared an awesome experience over two movies.
So, yeah, if James and the powers that be said, ‘we’d love to bring you back as Shazam!’ or if there were some other DC character…[I’d do it]. I love comic books, I’ve been reading them since I was a kid, so long as it was something that was really worthy, like a character or a story that was ‘oh wow, that’s new and that’s different, that’s a flavor we haven’t really seen yet before.'”
Levi has worked on multiple films since then, including “Spy Kids: Armageddon,” “Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget,” and “Harold And The Purple Crayon” – none of which took off. He’ll soon be seen in “Hotel Tehran”.
