When Zachary Levi was cast as the titular character in the upcoming DC superhero film, “Shazam,” fans were shocked. Up until that point, the actor was probably best known for playing the gangly nerd on the NBC series “Chuck.” He surely didn’t look like superhero material. And Levi would agree, as he talks about it in a new interview.
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Speaking to Collider, Levi recalls getting the audition for “Shazam” and immediately blowing it off because he never saw himself as the superhero type.
“I knew that The Rock had been cast as Black Adam, and, so my first reaction is, ‘Why the hell are they sending me this right now?’” said Levi. “I emailed them, and I said, ‘Hey, aren’t they looking for a) massive stars, or, at the very least, b) someone who is a massive person.’”
However, his agents gave him another part to read for. A secret role that he was given no information about. From there, apparently, everything went super fast and suddenly he was the star of a massive DC superhero film.
“I put myself on tape. That was sent to the creative team,” the actor recalls. “Then, I get a call from my agent and they said, ‘Hey, so, what about that role of Shazam that you passed on two months ago, because they think you actually might be very right for this?’”
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He continues, “Then, at that point, I got very happy. But I was also still kind of confused. I camera tested probably five days later, or six days later. Then, the next day, I found out that David [Sandberg, director of ‘Shazam’] called me. I was at the gym…I got a call from David, who said, ‘You are my Shazam.’”
Levi said that the audition process for “Shazam” oddly reminded him of his time reading for the role of Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” That is, the complete opposite of what happened.
“It was gnarly. It was insane. It was oddly, or ironically, reminiscent of when I was camera testing for Star-Lord in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’” said the actor. “I knew that Chris Pratt had also passed on that role. I wanted it so bad. There was definitely a strange thing of, ‘Wow. When you are not holding on to something so tightly, if it’s not something you’re dying and dying for, but you can have an unbiased, somewhat clear idea of what you are trying to go after and know that you are just being you, you are bringing your essence…’ Ultimately, that’s what I think got me this job.”
Of course, astute comic book film readers will know that Levi was actually cast in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise, as Fandral in the last two ‘Thor’ films. However, as we now know, thanks to ‘Ragnarok,’ Levi’s character was killed. This let him out of his Marvel contract, and thus, landed him “Shazam.”
But this also led to the interviewer asking him if he’s concerned about being killed off in his new superhero franchise. He replied that it’s difficult to kill off the titular character in a film, at which point, the name Henry Cavill was mentioned. Cavill, who portrays Superman in the DCEU, was recently rumored to be booted from the series and will eventually be recast.
However, Levi doesn’t think this is the case at all, saying, “Well, but he’s still Superman. He’s still Superman. Just because they haven’t gotten around to making another standalone Superman movie, doesn’t mean he’s still not Superman and doesn’t mean he’s still not killing it as Superman. Doesn’t mean everybody doesn’t still love him as Superman, right?”
Superman, of course, was rumored to appear in a cameo in “Shazam,” but reports say that never came to be. We’ll have to see what the future of the DCEU holds when “Shazam” hits theaters on April 5.