Hot on the heels of his latest film Shazam! Fury of the Gods opening to rough reception, Hollywood actor Zachary Levi has reposted an Instagram story suggesting that Dwayne Johnson blocked a post-credits scene in his film Black Adam that would have featured Levi’s character, Shazam.
This comes after an article in The Wrap claiming that Johnson had vetoed the post-credit scene from Black Adam which would have provided a marketing boost for the new Shazam film. In the Instagram story he shared, the post also alleged that Johnson attempted to put himself at the centre of the DCU, which is now being revamped under the new leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran. The actor also captioned the post as “The truth will set you free.”
A screenshot of Zachary Levi’s Instagram story | Photo Credit: @zacharylevi/Instagram
According to The Wrap article, Johnson “vetoed a planned post-credits scene in Black Adam, which would have seen Shazam recruited by Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman, and other costumed heroes, into the Justice Society of America”. Johnson, in his film’s post-credit scene, wanted his character Black Adam to not meet his comic book adversary Shazam but instead meet the much-popular Superman, played by Henry Cavill.
Levi also suggested that Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ poor box-office performance is due to Warner Bros’ marketing campaign. Replying to a tweet from a fan, he said that the film is “a perfect family movie, and yet a lot of families aren’t aware of that.”
This comes after the film’s director David F Sandberg confirmed that he won’t be returning to the superhero genre for a while though he stated that he doesn’t regret directing the film, and Levi’s co-star Rachel Zegler defended that the film has been subjected to mean criticism.
Interestingly, Levi also acknowledged that many fans of director Zack Snyder wanted this film to bomb as an act of revenge for Warner Bros. for dropping Snyder’s DC Universe. He also pointed out that he himself has seen almost all the director’s films and in another tweet, confirmed that he’s not blaming fans of Snyder.
