Shazam! Fury of the Gods is shaping up to be a bigger box office flop than even Black Adam, but a very public war of words is currently taking place online that makes nobody look good.
Director David F. Sandberg has been lamenting the movie's poor reviews on Twitter, while lead actor Zachary Levi now appears to be going on the offensive after a report from The Wrap blamed Dwayne Johnson for some of the sequel's failings. That included claims the actor stepped in to stop Justice Society heroes from being used in the mid-credits scene.
During a recent Instagram Live Q&A with fans, Levi said: "People are slagging on James Gunn because Jennifer Holland, his wife, who is an actress, who's on 'Peacemaker' and was in '[The] Suicide Squad,' which is connected to the Justice Society...we used [them]...but that was not the original intent."
"The original intent was to have Hawkman and Cyclone be there to invite me," the actor continued. "So our intent, our desire, Walter Hamada, Peter Safran, David Sandberg, myself, everybody...we had an awesome scene that would have tied me into the JSA with Hawkman and with Cyclone, and we were thwarted."
Who thwarted them? Levi doesn't name names, but he's obviously talking about Johnson.
Hawkman and Cyclone inviting Shazam into the Justice Society would have set the stage for Billy Batson to join the team and eventually face Black Adam, a showdown we know the former pro wrestler had no interest in. Instead, he planned to have his anti-hero bypass Shazam and take on Superman instead.
Levi did go on to say that "I'm not talking about these things trying to blame anybody for our movie doing however well or not well it's doing," insisting he's just sharing his truth to defend those around him.
Johnson has yet to respond, but this isn't his first Hollywood feud after he allegedly clashed with, well, pretty much everyone working on the Fast & Furious franchise.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters.