Zachary Levi isn’t having such a great couple of weeks, is he? Obviously, he was hoping “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” would be a massive hit and that would force James Gunn and Peter Safran, co-CEOs of DC Studios, to somehow work the character into their new slate of projects. Alas, that’s far from the truth. What actually happened is the ‘Shazam!’ sequel bombed epically and has ensured Levi’s future in the DCU is dead. That wouldn’t be so bad for the actor if he could just hop over to Marvel Studios and do something there, right? Well, unfortunately, he also spent that opportunity by playing Fandral in the MCU in the ‘Thor’ franchise. And that is something that apparently still bugs Levi to this day. He feels like he was somehow misled into accepting that Marvel supporting role.
Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Zachary Levi went through the process of landing the role of Frandral in the MCU, then losing it, but ultimately earning it back again years later. And unfortunately for the actor, he says Kevin Feige convinced him that the role would be much bigger when it turned out to be nothing but a glorified cameo.
Well before he was Shazam, Levi auditioned and made it far in the casting processes for Captain America and Star-Lord over at Marvel, but he ultimately lost out on those roles. However, he did earn the role of Fandral in the original “Thor,” playing a supporting character to Chris Hemsworth’s thunder god. However, his commitment to the series, “Chuck,” forced him out of the role. He got a second chance to play Fandral for “Thor: The Dark World,” after Josh Dallas (who played the character in “Thor”) was unable to do so in the sequel. But this led to some apprehension on Levi’s part. He saw the MCU grow and wanted to be more than a supporting character. But Kevin Feige apparently told him Fandral would be “a huge part” in the ‘Thor’ sequel and plus, he could play Fandral and then end up as another character down the line if he wanted.
“I was like ‘Hey, listen I also don’t want this to preclude me from being able to be another character. If this is the only chip I get to play, then thanks, but I would rather wait for something else,’” explained Levi. “He’s like, ‘No, no, you know Chris [Evans] was Johnny Storm, and then he got to be Captain America. Also, Ray Stevenson was Punisher before he was Volstagg.’ I mean, there were a few… Technically though, these were kind of Marvel tangential films… This was Prime Marvel. So it was kind of saying, it could happen, but also I was like, ‘Whatever.’”
Of course, we know that Levi would accept the role and appear as Fandral in ‘The Dark World.’ However, if you remember that movie (and you probably should try to erase it from memory, as it is a pretty bad film), you know that the Warriors Three were sidelined quite a bit in that film, as well. So yeah, as you might expect, Levi was a bit bummed.
“Anyway, point is, ultimately, it seemed like it would all be fine,” he added. “So I did the film, The Warriors Three weren’t really used all as much as I hoped they were going to be used, but I appreciated the job.”
So, now, years later, Levi is without a continuing role in the ‘Thor’ franchise and is the star of DC’s latest bomb. It would appear the actor’s superhero dreams are on hold for now. Maybe he’ll land a role in another franchise outside of the “Big 2.” We’ll just have to wait and see.