It was a rough year for the DCEU, and one of the films that got hit the hardest was Shazam: Fury of the Gods. It leaves open a major question as James Gunn gears up to launch the new DCU. Is there a place for Zachary Levi to return as Shazam? Or could he possibly do like other actors and take on a new role?
Speaking with Comicbook.com about the new Chicken Run sequel, Levi was asked about returning as Shazam when Gunn reboots the DCU. And Levi is definitely into the idea and working with certain actors and the superheroes they’re playing…
“I would love to be able to do more iterations of it,” Levi said. “I would love to collaborate with Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern.”
A Shazam/Green Lantern team-up would be very cool. And with those actors? Probably very funny.
But would Levi be open to joining the DCU as a new character? Well, Levi had a swipe to take at James Gunn about that possibility…
“When you’re the brother of the guy who runs DC, I guess you get to play who you want,” replied Levi.
Shots fired!! This is obviously a reference to last weekend’s news that James Gunn hired his brother, Sean Gunn, to play the DC villain Maxwell Lord. But this has also been a consistent criticism of Gunn that he keeps hiring the same actors repeatedly, and gives roles to those closest to him. In the case of Sean Gunn, he played Kraglin in three Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He’s one of the few actors carrying over from the DCEU, where he played Weasel in The Suicide Squad, and will reprise the role in Creature Commandos, while also playing G.I. Robot. But those are voice roles, so nobody is going to see Sean Gunn’s face. We also know that Viola Davis and John Cena will be crossing over, Gunn’s partner Jennifer Holland will return for another season of Peacemaker, and it’s expected that Jason Momoa will ditch the Aquaman role for Lobo at some point.
I’m pretty sure Levi made this comment in jest. Still, he’s feeding into criticism of Gunn that’s already out there. If he thought there was a shot of playing Shazam once more I doubt he would’ve said anything. It’s not exactly a burned bridge, and Gunn doesn’t seem like the type to hold grudges, but it couldn’t have helped.
