This article contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods
The Shazam 2 star, Zachary Levi, has recently found himself on the receiving end of more backlash than was seemingly necessary for his performance on the screen. On the other hand, his relentless invocation of the SnyderVerse and the subsequent debate that he raises by pitting the new DCU against its predecessor has rightfully drawn some ire from the fandom, both new and old. And with time, it doesn’t look like Levi is in the mood to settle the argument anytime soon.
Zachary Levi Rebels Against Zack Snyder’s Fans
The Shazam! franchise has given us a happy-go-lucky character who, simply put, often goes overboard with the “happy” aspect of his personality. On the first watch, Shazam! was an on-point delivery and was every bit as fun as one would expect the comic book character to be. With time, the disparity between Asher Angel’s Billy Batson and Zachary Levi’s becomes too wide in its representation of the same character to then not be noticed by the fandom.
However, this realization which then leads to a downgrading of Zachary Levi’s character within the DC family has more often than not been blamed on the collective head of the SnyderVerse fandom. In a recent interview with Josh Horowitz, expressing his sadness and dislike of the toxicity of the DC fandom, Levi claimed:
“There’s a whole contingent of comic book fans that… it’s really unfortunate that there’s this one particular group of people that think I… well, they don’t like me, because I don’t agree with them on other comic book movies. You know who I’m talking about.”
The actor is of course right in pointing out that the DCEU fandom can be overwhelming in their venomous criticism of anything that does not align with Snyder’s original vision. But at the same time, such criticism can mentally and emotionally tear down an actor for playing the part he was cast to portray, and doing it the best way he can while at it.
The SnyderVerse Fandom Gets Caught in the Crossfire
The DC franchise hardly has any cause to dislike Zachary Levi’s current argument against the former SnyderVerse. In fact, David Ayer himself has called out the fandom for being toxic in the past. However, Levi has consistently been ranting against the Man of Steel director’s followers for their apparent dislike of his comic book character. The SnyderVerse fandom, on their part, has been coming down hard on every aspect of James Gunn’s new plans for DC and not simply Shazam 2 (which is an extension of the old universe).
Incidentally, however, the proportionate mass of the audience who have not turned up for Shazam 2 spreads out evenly over the whole DC fan demography since most of the audience seem unwilling to sit through a 130-minute fun fandango of family-friendly superhero adventure. The SnyderVerse hardly has anything to do with the uptake in animosity against the Shazam! franchise since even they have somewhat acknowledged the promise and the potential that Gunn’s plans hold for the future of this cinematic universe.
Levi’s character has become unapproachable in itself for its wonky difference in the representation of Billy and Shazam, and a faction of the DC fandom caught on to the fact quite early on to then negate the actor for his performance once the movies came out.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theatres worldwide.
Source: The Happy, Sad, Confused Podcast
