Last month,
Shazam star Zachary Levi found himself in the middle of an odd online assault against
Captain Marvel when a group of disgruntled people attempted to pit the two superhero movies against each other. It was part of an attempt to sink
Captain Marvel at the box office by review-bombing the Brie Larson-led film with what Levi called "false inflammatory things" as well as complete fabrications. Levi
ultimately posted a video asking people to stop trying to pit these two movies against each other and to stop with the lies about
Captain Marvel and defamation towards Brie.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Levi clarified why he decided to stand up against the haters, despite any backlash he could face.
"I just think it's important to stand for what is right," Levi said.
"I think it's important to stand for what is true. And I think that if we can speak truth in love, then we are doing our job in this world."
"I wasn't really privy to a lot of the stuff that was going on with that. I was just getting hit on Twitter by a lot of people, people saying that were clearly false inflammatory things about Brie, about Captain Marvel, and looping us as Shazam into that," he added. The DC-owned hero Shazam used to go by the name Captain Marvel as well, which is probably why fans sought to pit the two against each other and why Levi got caught up in the mix.
"I was like, 'No, no, no, no. I'm not going to be a part of lies or defamation, nor is this movie, nor should any of you. There's no reason why any of this needs to be going on,'" Levi said.
"Then other people got upset because they were like, 'We were just leaving our honest comments no Rotten Tomatoes.' and like, 'I'm not talking about your Rotten Tomatoes comments. I'm talking about actual fabrications and defamation online.'
Levi added that he has
"a lot of love for Brie," but said his response was less about defending her.
"I don't think Brie needs me to defend Brie," he said.
"But we all need to defend what is true. If we have an opportunity to do that, and I had an opportunity to do that, then I wanted to be able to do that."
For what it's worth, the attempts to ground
Captain Marvel have failed fantastically.
Captain Marvel is soaring at the box office,
currently sitting at over $800 million worldwide, and there's a very good chance it
could break the $1 billion mark.
Shazam, meanwhile, has
received overwhelmingly positive initial reactions and is
tracking for a $40 million opening weekend at the domestic box office.
We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).
Shazam opens in theaters on April 5, 2019.