Shazam! Fury of the Gods debuted to a disappointing 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and ultimately made a mere $133.8 million at the worldwide box office. It was a disastrous result and one which surprised the majority given Shazam!'s success back in 2019.
One of the biggest complaints was Zachary Levi's performance as the title character; while his take on a child in a superhero's body worked relatively well in the first movie, something didn't quite click in the follow-up and there were those who argued Asher Angel should have replaced Levi as the Big Red Cheese.
Screen Rant recently caught up with Levi to discuss Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, and the actor addressed the criticisms about his work head-on.
"From the first movie to the second, I tried to age him as Billy ages, you know, in his actual younger teen form. Inside, he’s aging too," the actor explained. "Obviously, in the first film, he was like 15, and in the second he’s 17ish, almost 18. So I tried to address that and bring that into the character, which ironically, in some ways, kind of made him feel almost a little more immature."
"But that’s because when he’s 15, he’s not trying to be cool guy, when he’s 17, he’s trying to be cool guy, he’s trying to be the leader, and he’s trying to kind of put on that bravado more."
The mistake Warner Bros. may have made with Shazam is casting an actor to play Billy Batson who was not just too old back in 2019, but far too old by the time the sequel followed four years later.
Still, Levi remains keen to reprise the role and later shared his take on where the character could go next. "I think with the third iteration, obviously, he'd be a little bit older than that, and so kind of incorporating whatever that extra bit of growth and maturation and wisdom would be and, hopefully, just go on some really cool adventures with some other cool DC characters."
"Nathan Fillion and I have been buddies for a really long time, and I think a Green Lantern/Shazam buddy-comedy would be so much fun," he continued. "So, I don't know, something like that."
Not only will it make no sense for a Billy in his 20s to transform into a middle-aged Shazam, but it seems doubtful this character is high on DC Studios' priority list given the last instalment's box office performance. With that in mind, we sadly don't anticipate Levi getting another shot at playing the fan-favourite superhero.
As always, we'll keep you updated when we learn more.