Shazam 2 star Zachary Levi calls out Hollywood “garbage”

Lucy-Jo Finnighan
Zachary Levi on a bridge with his superhero pals in Shazam 2.

Shazam star Zachary Levi recently told fans how Hollywood could be improved, and to do so, we have to not “choose the garbage.”

Zachary Levi has been a hot topic in Hollywood as of late. While he was recently slammed for complaining about the SAG-AFTRA strike rules, he’s since made it clear that he supports the strikes, and has instead turned his criticism to Hollywood.

The Shazam! star recently said what many critics have been saying about cinema for a number of years: that Hollywood has begun churning out “garbage.”

Surprisingly, he also went on to challenge the poor critical reception to Shazam! 2, claiming that it’s a “good darn movie.”

Shazam star calls out Hollywood “garbage”

Zachary Levi, star of one of the biggest superhero movie flops of last year, recently took to the stage for Chicago Fan Expo on Saturday. While voicing his support for the current Hollywood strikes, Levi expressed frustration with the film industry as a whole to an applauding audience.

“I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage – they don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys. They don’t,” the actor explained. “How many times do you watch a trailer and go, ‘Oh my god, this looks so cool!’ Then you go to the movie and it’s like, ‘This was what I get?'”

“They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money. And the only way for us to change any of it is to not go to the garbage. We have to actively not choose the garbage. It’ll help. It’ll help a lot.”

However, it is quite ironic for Levi to say this, as that was seemingly what happened with his film Shazam! 2: Fury of the Gods last year. In fact, most of the recent DCEU films have been performing poorly. However, this reception was something that Levi disagreed with:

“The audience score is still quite good, but the critics score was, I don’t know, very oddly and perplexingly low, and people were insanely unkind,” he complained last month (via Entertainment Weekly). “Listen, I’ve been a part of things and as much as I wish that they were good, I know that they’re okay, I know they missed a lot. I’m not saying Shazam! Fury of the Gods is some perfect Orson Welles masterpiece, but it’s a good darn movie.”

Audiences seemingly agree with Levi, as the movie did receive an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but its critical score was 49%. Plus, while audiences seemed to like the movie, they didn’t show up for it in droves, as Fury of the Gods received $57.6 million at the domestic box office.

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About The Author

Lucy-Jo is a Movies and TV Writer at Dexerto, and has previously written for Screen Rant and Girls on Tops. After earning a Master's Degree in Film and Literature, Lucy-Jo now loves covering films, TV shows, and anime, especially if it's something by Mike Flanagan, or anything drenched in camp. You can contact her at lucyjo.finnighan@dexerto.com