Worst DC superhero star sinks even lower, costar has nothing nice to say
Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While the first Shazam the film became a hit, the failure of its sequel was actually the beginning of the end of the career of the lead role of Zachary Levy. He appeared to be anti-vaxxer in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and according to one of his colleagues, those beliefs recently caused him to sink to a whole new low. Levi and Laura Benanti both starred in the Broadway play She loves meand she recently accused him of implying that their co-star Gavin Creel’s cancer death was actually caused by his inoculation.
Zachary Levy Costar Goes Off
Krylo was diagnosed in July and died on September 30, and after Zachary Levy went live on Instagram in support of Trump. During this, he brought up Wing’s death, oddly saying that “if these COVID vaccinations hadn’t been pushed on the American public, the theaters wouldn’t have been pushed and used,” before pausing to blame “the people at the top.” To most people, it sounded like he was implying that Wing’s cancer was caused by vaccination, which angered cast member Laura Benanti: “For (Levy) to use (Wing’s) memory is a person he wasn’t friends to use his memory for her political agenda… I thought, “You’re forever,” she said.
Interestingly, Benanti disagrees with those who believe this conservative virtue signaling is “career suicide” simply “because Christian, religious TV and movies are huge.” She believes Zachary Levy “going to be a big damn star in this realm” and “going to make more money than ever,” a prospect that makes her “nauseous.” Only time will tell how much Levy’s increasingly high-profile politics will help his career, but blaming the cast member’s cancer death on a COVID vaccine is a new low for the star, who frankly didn’t think it could go much lower.
The Rise and Fall of Zachary Levy
This DC star’s main role was in the TV show Chuckand he also voiced Flynn Rider in the hugely successful Disney the movie Confused. All this led to the fact that he got the role of the main character Shazam!and after that film grossed $367.8 million on a $90-100 million budget, it seemed like he was poised to become a Hollywood megastar. however, Shazam 2 was a colossal flop, grossing just $134.1 million on a budget of $110–125 million, and the star’s reaction to the film’s failure revealed a sad and downright desperate side of his personality that might otherwise have remained hidden.
After Shazam 2 bombs, Zachary Levy published a series of videos of the disaster Instagram where he appeared to be holding back tears and blamed Dwayne Johnson for killing the post-credits cameo that linked the superhero sequel to Black Adam. This offense is particularly surprising because, while Johnson’s selfish decision seems very petty, there’s no way in the world that the addition of a warm post-credits sequence with relatively no-name characters like Hawkman and Cyclone would have changed Shazam 2 in a monster hit. It was even sadder to see Levi end one of his videos by asking fans to consider his sequel instead of John Wick 4.
Zachary Levy’s first major film since Shazam 2 was Harold and the purple penciland it also bombed, making only $32 million on a $40 million budget. This second big-budget flop seemingly spelled the end of the actor’s chances of becoming a major movie star, with many speculating that the star’s downfall began with his post in early 2023 on X, where he agreed with a user that COVID vaccine maker Pfizer “is real a danger to the world” about two months ago Shazam 2 the premiere took place. By hinting that actor Gavin Creel somehow contracted cancer as a result of a vaccination, the star proves he hasn’t learned anything from previous failures.
Tragically perfect casting
Once upon a time, I would have felt a little sympathy for Zachary Levy. After all, who wouldn’t be sad to have their most ambitious career dreams ripped out from under them? Everything changed last year, when the star appeared on Storytellers with Andrew Erwin podcast and admitted that he hates projects being delayed due to COVID because “when the pandemic came, I had no money and no income” and he had to rely on friends because money was “very tight.”
Somehow I can’t help but think that if I was paid millions of dollars for lucrative acting work and licensing deals, I wouldn’t suddenly go broke if my income stream was temporarily delayed due to producers trying to save lives. And even if I were bankrupt, I wouldn’t be channeling everything into the politics of resentment that forces me to politicize the tragic death of my colleague in an apparent attempt to win over people who think vaccination causes cancer.
However, because of his antics, I have to admit that Zachary Levi was perfectly cast as Shazam. After all, who else in Hollywood could so perfectly embody what it’s like to have the mind of a child in the body of an adult?
Source: People
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