‘Shazam!’ Star Zachary Levi Excited to Become a Superhero

When Shazam! premieres in theaters next year, actor Zachary Levi will be one of the the actors who has had starring roles in both the DC and Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Levi never really had a huge opportunity to shine in the Marvel movies, making his debut as Fandral in Thor: The Dark World and then dying after his 5-second appearance in Thor: Ragnarok. But he’s excited to step into the spotlight as the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel.

The actor spoke with Entertainment Tonight about his star turn in Shazam, geeking out about his opportunity to be one of the major superheroes in DC’s growing cinematic universe.

“There’s a lot of these moments in the movie, you know, they would take like six hours to shoot because we like had a bunch of different cameras on this lighting but you know it was just like ‘Shazam stands and looks,’ you know, this moment,” Levi said.

“There’s a couple of those moments. There was one where it was like this mist and fog and I’m standing up like this big strong heroic pose and the light from my chest was like shining through the mist and it felt really cool in the moment and then I went back and watched it in the monitors and was like ‘Holy crap, I’m a bone fide superhero and I want to look like this the whole time.’”

The actor seems to be riding a wave of astonishment that began ever since he was first cast. Levi previously revealed that he did not think he would be chosen for the role, knowing that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was first cast as Shazam’s enemy Black Adam.

“I put myself on tape for this other role and the director, producers, and the studio saw it,” Levi said at Baltimore Comic Con. “And they hadn’t cast their Shazam yet and they said ‘We think that could be our Shazam.’”

Levi could identify with the film’s main character of Billy Batson, comparing his situation to the boy who becomes blessed with the power of Shazam!

“I feel like in the same way the Wizard sees in Billy Batson the character that is necessary to be Captain Marvel, Shazam,” Levi said. “I feel like New Line and my director and producers saw in me the character necessary to be this character.”

Shazam! premieres in theaters on April 5, 2019.