Zachary Levi, the American actor who rose to fame as Chuck Bartowski in the series Chuck, has been a part of both the Marvel and DC universes.
While he played the lead role of Shazam in DC’s Shazam! and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, his involvement with Marvel did not meet his expectations.
In a recent interview for The Happy, Sad, Confused Podcast, Zachary Levi revealed that he was promised a more prominent role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by the boss of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige.
However, his character Fandral, initially played by Joshua Dallas, had a minor impact in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. Furthermore, the character was killed off in the latter film.
Levi’s full quote on his involvement in MCU: “Feige is like, ‘Hey, would Zach want to take this role again?’ And to be honest, look… and I insisted on talking to Kevin about it, for two reasons. One, I saw the first movie, and I didn’t really feel like the Warriors Three were utilized in that great of a way. And I was like, ‘Is that going to be the case again, because if it is, I don’t really want to do that, you know?’ And he’s like, ‘No, no, no, it’s gonna be a huge part of this movie.’ Not so much, as it turned out.”
Despite the disappointment, it is possible that plans for Zachary Levi’s character were initially different, and his role could be expanded. The concept of the Multiverse could be used as an excuse to bring back the surface in a more significant role.
Although the promise of a more prominent role did not come to fruition, Zachary Levi’s involvement with the DC universe as Shazam could have helped to lessen the blow. It is worth noting that the actor has had a successful career in both television and film, with several notable performances in various projects.
