Zachary Levi Talks Accents in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

The new Chicken Run movie is hitting streaming on Friday, and Chuck and Shazam! star Zachary Levi plays Rocky -- a character originated by Mel Gibson in the original film, and a character who stands out in a number of ways -- not least of which is his voice. Levi's is the only character in the principal cast who has an American accent, surrounded once again by British chickens. Speaking with ComicBook.com about the movie, Levi said that he had fun playing with accents on set, although he can't honestly seem to remember if anything except his normal voice actually made it into the final cut of the film.

It's not the weirdest thing for Levi to be surrounded by accents -- after all, he appeared in the Thor and Shazam! movies -- but playing a lead role, and being surrounded by them for the entirety of a production, seemingly tempted Levi to try on his own accent for size.

"I love doing an English accent," Levi told ComicBook.com, slipping into an English accent. "So we would be doing a section, and I would start going off and doing something like this. But that was just for shits and gigs, really. We weren't recording."

Snapping back to his natural voice, Levi added, "I feel like there might have been another silly voice that I did, but now I can't remember -- I've slept since then. But I love doing voices and dialects."

Here's the film's official synopsis: 

From the multi Academy and BAFTA award-winning Aardman (Creature Comforts, Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep), and Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated director Sam Fell (ParaNorman and Flushed Away, respectively), comes Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, the eagerly anticipated sequel to the beloved and highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, Chicken Run. 

Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy's farm, Ginger has finally found her dream — a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger's happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk — this time, they're breaking in!

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is set to release on Netflix on Friday, December 15.