Zachary Levi Suggests There Are No Plans To Recast Shazam In The New DC Universe
It's been a weird day week month for the DC film universe, but amidst seemingly never ending news of superhero shake-ups, it sounds like there's one hero we'll still be seeing again. Zachary Levi, the actor who plays superpowered Shazam for the Warner Bros Discovery-owned company, has just shared a tweet implying that he's not going anywhere.
The post came in response to two posts from fans discussing the future of Levi's version of Shazam, the adult superhero half of Asher Angel's teen character Billy Batson. Twitter user @ComicLoverMari posted a photo of the hero, along with a caption expressing anger over their assertion that "Levi isn't gonna be Shazam anymore." The tweet also claimed that Levi is close friends with James Gunn, who along with Peter Safran took over as the new co-chair and co-CEO of DC Studios in October.
Levi took to Twitter to correct the record, quote-tweeting another user's response to the initial post with the following:
"Oooh, I really wouldn't go believing everything you see on the internet. I'm Gucci, Ash. We all Gucci. 😎" – @ZacharyLevi
Gucci, of course, means "good," and between that and the sunglasses emoji, the actor sounds pretty confident in his future in the DC universe. Shazam is already set to appear in next year's film "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," but Gunn and Safran have not yet revealed their full plan for the future of the franchise. They have, however, shared lots of plans for other series, most of which seem to imply a total makeover for the studio that's already seen major changes since David Zaslav took over Warner Bros. Discovery in the wake of the two companies' mergers this past spring.
This isn't today's only big DC news
James Gunn has indicated that DC's future won't be made totally clear until January, but that hasn't stopped fans from speculating about the future of their favorites in the wake of a near-constant onslaught of rumors and trade reporting on the studio. Earlier this month, word got out that Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman 3" would not be moving forward. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill announced his return as Superman back in October and left Netflix's "The Witcher" in November, before sharing the news last week that he's officially out as the Man of Steel in accordance with Gunn and Safran's vision for the studio.
Zachary Levi's post also came in the wake of yet another bombshell bit of news, as Dwayne Johnson posted a message to Twitter this afternoon indicating that Black Adam will also be absent from the upcoming slate of DC projects, at least for the time being. Pretty much nothing feels like a guarantee in the world of DC films right now, but Levi's sunglass emoji seems to indicate that he's not worried about the future of Shazam.
It's unclear as of publication time whether Levi's optimistic statement means that his version of Shazam will officially survive the clean slate maneuver the new heads of DC seem to be employing, but it certainly seems to imply as much. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.
"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" hits theaters on March 17, 2023.