Zachary Levi Reflects on How He Was Almost Marvel's Star-Lord Until James Gunn Helped Him Land Shazam! Role (Exclusive)

Actor Zachary Levi is now famous in the superhero movie genre for his role as Shazam in DC's Shazam! movie franchise – however, the former Chuck star almost got his big breakout role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. The story of Zachary Levi's failed audition for Guardians of the Galaxy is well-known, but during the press junket for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Levi took a moment to reflect upon the path of his superhero movie career, and how it was new DC Studios co-head James Gunn that helped him land the role as Shazam! 

"Listen, I've known Peter [Safran] now for years because he's my producer on Shazam! and I've known James Gunn for even more years," Levi told ComicBook.com. "We have mutual friends and we've had game nights together in LA. I've been at a Christmas party of his and almost was Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. He, James, stumped for me, fought for me when Peter asked him about me," Levi revealed. "'Hey, what do you think of Zach because we're thinking about him for Shazam?' James was like, 'Yes, go get that guy, he could really go crush that.'"

...And the rest, as they say, is history. 

Iroinically enough, Zachary Levi may want to start looking for a hole in the fence that could take him over from DC to Marvel. The Shazam! franchise's place in the new DC Studios era is far from certain; by all indications, the franchise's future may be decided by the box office performance of Fury of the Gods. 

As Levi explained, James Gunn and Peter Safran are working from a "rolling reset" that could make Shazam! part of the new DCU franchise – or not: 

"It's kind of a rolling reset, if you will," Levi said. "There's a lot of things that were inherited that were already kind of well before Peter and James even got to the positions they're in right now. There were lots of conversations about what's going to move forward and what's not, and how do we, 'How do we?' I'm way over here as a aprt of the 'we,' but how do the powers that be figure out how to chop this up and try to make it work moving forward?"

Shazam! Fury of the Gods hits theaters on March 17th.