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Zachary Levi Thinks “Toxicity” And “Online Hate” Caused ‘Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods” To Flop

Zachary Levi still feels raw for how poorly “Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods” did in theaters. And in his mind, toxic social media is to blame. EW reports that the actor talked about the critical and commercial failure of the sequel on a new episode of The FilmUp podcast, which Levi still feels isn’t fair to the movie he was a part of.

READ MORE: Zachary Levi Confirms ‘Shazam 2’ Post-Credits Scene With JSA Was “Thwarted” (By Dwayne Johnson)

“As an experience, I really enjoyed making that movie and I really enjoyed playing that part,” Levi said on the podcast. “I don’t know what the future holds for it all, because, unfortunately, the second movie was not as well-received. The audience score is still quite good, but the critics score was, I don’t know, very oddly and perplexingly low, and people were insanely unkind.” “Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods” made only $137 million at the global box office, and currently holds a 49% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For basis of comparison, 2019’s “Shazam!” holds a 90% rating and grossed $367 million globally.

Given that severe drop in gross and critical acclaim, it’s unlikely Levi’s superhero will show up in James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s new DCU. When asked if he’d be up for another “Shazam!” film, Levi replied, “Listen, I’ve been a part of things and as much as I wish that they were good, I know that they’re okay, I know they missed a lot. I’m not saying “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is some perfect Orson Welles masterpiece, but it’s a good darn movie.” So, in other words, Levi recognizes it’s unlikely he’ll ever play Shazam! again, but he’ll continue to stand by a movie he feels was treated unfairly.

But why does Levi think “Fury Of The Gods” was received so poorly? The actor blames toxic online behavior and that “the world has shifted so much” between the 2019 film and this one. And, of course, one film was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the other was after. “Social media has shifted so much,” Levi explained, “online hate and haters and trolls and factions and all of that has just gotten more galvanized in its toxicity, and I think that there are people that genuinely, unfortunately, want to destroy certain projects because they don’t like them or they don’t like me or other people involved in them or whatever.” Levi didn’t mention any specific examples here, instead lamenting the entire online culture.

But despite how harshly some people treated the film, Levi believes audiences will come to appreciate it. “I just hope or believe that history will show,” Levi continued. “It will be one of those things that people will go back, people will watch “Fury of the Gods” on home streaming or on a plane or wherever, and it’ll be this movie they heard so much s— about, and they’ll be like, ‘Well, wait a minute.’ It is what it is.” Previously, Levi blamed the marketing for “Fury Of The Gods” for the film’s poor reception in a fan Q&A; he’s since deleted that tweet. Elsewhere, he also referenced Dwayne Johnson killing any involvement between his “Black Adam” film and “Fury Of The Gods,” with Johnson reportedly “ruining” a post-credits sequence connecting the two films.

Is Levi looking for anyone to blame for the failure of “Fury Of The Gods,” or is he right that it’s a decent film that’s been unfairly overlooked? Whatever the case, the film’s director David F. Sandberg is done with superhero movies for now. “I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically, but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well,” the director tweeted back in March. “As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of “Shazam” I’m definitely done with superheroes for now.”

“Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods” is streaming on Max now.

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