Coming to theaters this week is the latest comic book adaptation, DC’s Shazam! with Asher Angel starring in the film as Billy Batson, and Zachary Levi taking on the titular hero and his alter ego.
In the most recent version of the Shazam story from DC, which the film appears to be following, the Wizard (sometimes also referred to as Shazam, later named Mamaragan) is an ancient being and the last surviving member of a council of wizards who must find a champion to battle the evil Black Adam, eventually choosing Billy.
David F. Sandberg is directing for New Line Cinema with cast members including Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen and Jovan Armand.
Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, Shazam first appeared in Fawcett Comics’ Whiz Comics #2. By saying the world “Shazam,” teenager Billy Batson was transformed into the “world’s mightiest mortal” and given extraordinary abilities by ancient gods.
Blackfilm.com recently spoke with Levi on playing the known superhero. He’s best known for playing Chuck Bartowski in the NBC series Chuck as well as appearing in the Marvel film Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok as Fandral.
When did you become a fan of Shazam?
Zachary Levi: I became a fan of Shazam in the auditioning process. I was of Shazam but only to the extent of young boy, magic word and becomes a superhero, which is kind of iconic troupe you can think of. Certainly there is the idea of “maybe we are an alien from another planet and we don’t really fit in and you can then identify with Superman a little bit. Or you’ve gone through some gnarly stuff in your life and you’re trying to work that out and you feel connected to Batman. I would say 100% of the population in their young lives believed that they can be a superhero, but they need to figured out what the magic word is. When i started digging just into that, I was like “whoa” and how is that film never got made. How has ‘Big’ meets ‘Superman’ never been made?
Big was one of my favorite movies of all time and I always wanted to do a Big type movie. The fact that I wanted to a Big film with super powers is fun. The very colorful and interesting lineage of history of Captain Marvel from 1939 to DC’s Shazam in 2019, that 80 year span of so many different iterations and versions of Billy, Captain Marvel’s family and the gee whiz of it all and the modern stuff and what Geoff Johns was trying to do is that the character is pure of heart. I love characters that have good heart. I loved those types of heroes whether they are super or not. When I did ‘Chuck’ on NBC years ago it was a similar archetype. A guy who was in a weird place in his life and down on his luck and Billy is down on his luck and looking for his biological mom and Chuck was kicked out of college and working at a big box store, all of a sudden through now desire of his own was thrown in this role of being a hero for people and his heart guided him the whole time. Billy’s heart is always guiding him with all of these powers that he’s found makes for an incredible character to play.
Did you lose or gain weight for the role?
Zachary Levi: The first two months were about gaining weight. I was trying to put on mass as fast as I could. I think I put on about 24 pounds in the initial phase and I went to Toronto and started stunt rehearsal. Then I was more in a cut phase and that month I cut down and we started shooting but I still had a lot of that mass on me. Since then, I’ve been in the gym six days a week for a year and a half. Some days it sucks. I don’t want to work out. Without fail when I leave the gym, I’m grateful that I went. It makes me healthier and stronger.
Did you know when you signed on that it would have a more kid friendly approach?
Zachary Levi: Definitely. Typically the script tells you the tone of the movie. It’s a story of a 14 year old who can say a magic word and becomes an adult superhero but is still 14 inside. Is that a drama or a comedy? It’s a comedy but it doesn’t mean that it will have drama in it. The premise will tell you where our starting point is. Then you start adding all the pieces around that and you have a bunch of young kids in the movie. Is that going to be really dark and gritty or is that going to be something that these kids get to be kids in and show their enthusiasm and optimism and family dynamic of all of it. All of the pieces from what you see were all there in the script. Henry wrote a great script and David directed a great movie. They both gave us a lot of freedom to live in these roles. I had a good idea of what this was going to feel like.
You’ve been at Comic-Con for a long time and you know how the fans are, how important is it when actors take on the roles of playing a superhero character, that they to know as much history as they can?
Zachary Levi: If you love something for decades and you know all the ins and outs of it, you start thinking to yourself that if anybody should play the role it should be me somebody like me that knows all these things. I understand when people get testy. They want to you to care as much as they care. They want to be able to trust that you would do justice to the role and I understand that. I believe that what I’ve been given is an honor and a responsibility and I want to honor this character and its very cool history. I want to honor the fans who have supported it for many years and all of the writers that have kept it alive for all this this time, but you also want to honor the new audience that knew nothing about the character and what they are getting is a new fresh take on it. We are borrowing from many sources in that same world.
From my perspective, the best way to honor that is do my research and try to craft the best version to make as many people as possible happy. Is that going to happen? No. There will be people who will be salty. “That’s not my Captain Marvel or Shazam.” You just have to hope that maybe one day they will come around. Also, I would never pretend to know all of the things that are Captain Marvel or Shazam. There are so many comics that I still have not read. DC was really cool and sent me a care package of the older comics. Plenty of die hard fans will take me to task on that stuff. I don’t know everything but I have tried to absorb as much as I can to make it authentically as Billy and Shazam.
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