Shazam! star Zachary Levi was recently in attendance for Dragon Con 2021, and he opened up about his brief stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor was supposed to play Fandral in 2011's Thor, but scheduling conflicts meant the role went to Josh Dallas instead. When he was too busy for the sequel, Levi was enlisted for Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok.
Unfortunately, he had a thankless role in both, but still remembers the experience as being "a dream come true." However, he also recalls being told by Marvel Studios when he signed on that he could expect The Warriors Three to have a much meatier part to play in Alan Taylor's movie (they didn't).
"To be honest, I had seen the first one, and I didn’t really feel like The Warriors Three were used all that well. So, I was like, ‘Hey, are you going to actually use these folks?' And they said, ‘Oh no, we’re gonna use The Warriors Three a lot in Thor: The Dark World . A lot. Yeah, you’re going to be busy.’ And I was like, ‘Okay,’ so I signed up for it."
"I didn’t have that much to do, you know? And really, nothing to do in the third one. I knew I was going to die in the third one. I didn’t know I was going to die, having said nothing. Even the few words they gave me were going to be taken away...and even if I didn’t die, they were probably going to snap me out of existence anyway, who am I kidding?"
While his time in the MCU was a disappointment, Levi says he's grateful because "I died in the Marvel Universe and then I got reborn in the DC Universe. I can’t even tell you how unbelievably cool that is and how grateful I am for that."
It's unfortunate that things ended the way they did for Fandral in the Thor franchise, and The Warriors Three, as a whole, never got the opportunity to live up to their comic book counterparts. Things did work out well for Levi, of course, and we'll soon see him in Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Fingers crossed Lady Sif fares a little better upon her MCU return, eh?