The actor opens up about returning for Shazam!
Fury of the Gods, from punching dragons to teaching Helen Mirren to hoverboard.
Zachary Levigets to do some ridiculous things inShazam!
Zachary Levi in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’.Warner Bros. Pictures
Fury of the Gods.
But there’s one moment that Levi particularly geeked out over.
“I get to punch a dragon multiple times!”
Zachary Levi and Helen Mirren in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’.Warner Bros. Pictures
the actor says gleefully.
“Listen, he deserved it.
He’s a mean dragon.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to when you first started thinking about the sequel.
What excited you about coming back?
It was very loose.
I was like, “A dragon?
What, are you kidding me?
Let’s go!”
So that just added another layer of dope.
Your director, David Sandberg, told me that you taught Helen Mirren how to hoverboard between takes?
I gave her her first little taste.
[Laughs] She was very safe!
I was holding her hand.
you’re free to see the video: I was just giving her a little balance action.
But I love those things.
I just want to get on them all the time and just go float around.
I put my earbuds in, listen to music, and I just float.
If you’re going to play a superhero who can fly, this seems like the next best thing.
I’m gonna get on my hoverboard and go fight crime."
I’m curious: What was the biggest difference between making the first film and returning for a sequel?
We all got to hit the ground running a little bit more.
We set a tone and a cadence with the first one.
We didn’t have to figure that out anymore.
We could all just come back and have fun together.
From an individual character standpoint, Billy is now three years older.
He’s almost 18.
Emotionally, that’s where he’s at, and I just tried to layer that into the performance.
It’s definitely helpful because the first one was a big experiment, you know?
Every movie’s kind of a big experiment, but this character especially.
Everyone knows who Superman is, which is a double-edged sword.
If you’re Superman, everyone has an idea of what you’re supposed to be.
We had this not-unknown but lesser-known IP.
They allow it to kind of be what it is.
That gave us that leeway, and audiences really enjoyed it.
So now, the pressure is: Don’t screw that up.
Keep the DNA that made it great, and just build on it.
And I think we did that.
We talked about working with David Sandberg.
What was it like to reunite with him?
Visually, he brings a lot of cool stuff, just the way he paints frames.
And you’re like, “Well, I hope that people like my choices!”
How was it getting to spend more time with Adam in this one?
It’s really interesting because Adam and I are both Josh Schwartz alums.
So we already had an interesting connection, and I loved working with him.
you might have one bad apple, and being at work can be way more miserable.
But we had all these wonderful, lovely, tasty apples that made this great apple pie.
I’m using metaphors I never thought I was going to use.
[Laughs]
You mentioned working with a lot of the younger kids.
What’s the vibe like on set with these big goofy group scenes?
But I just have a go at bring as much positivity to the day as I can.
I bring a big speaker.
I play music throughout the day.
I just wanted to make a run at be a little bit of an uncle to these kids.
I’m Uncle Zach.
So all these very talented, lovely kids.
So if you’re bringing a speaker on set, what’s on the playlist?
It’s basically all upbeat dance pop.
It spans the decades.
[Laughs] I love to dance.
And that throw in of music just puts a little pep in your step.
And it makes the day go by so much more fluidly.
I know there’s been somechatter about the future of DC films, especially with the regime change.
Shazam is interesting because Peter Safran, the studio’s new co-chair, is a producer on this movie.
Do you have any ideas of what Shazam’s future might look like?
We just wanted to make the best movie we could and get that movie to the world.
And we’ve made a great movie.
They’ll decide what the future is.
I would love to do a superhero meets zombie movie.
[Laughs] That’s what I would lean into.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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