Shazam 2 star Zachary Levi has slammed the "garbage" that comes out of Hollywood, calling on fans to vote with their wallets.
Appearing at the Chicago Fan Expo on Saturday, August 12 (as reported by Entertainment Weekly), the Shazam actor asked fans to “actively not choose” rubbish movies.
“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,” he said.
Levi criticized certain movies’ inability to live up to their hype. “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?’ ” added Levi. “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.”
Levi's Shazam 2 failed to bring in audiences upon its March release, and with a mediocre critical reception earned just $133 million worldwide.
“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,” Levi recently said about the Shazam sequel. “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.”
It's unclear whether Levi will return as Shazam after the sequel was considered such a huge flop. In a recent interview, Levi himself said: “I have no idea where we go from here.” The character is also notably absent from James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU roadmap.
IGN’s Shazam 2 review gave it 7/10 and said: “Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a breezy, often funny second outing for Billy Batson and his family of young heroes. Each of the villainous Atlassian Daughters bring something unique to the screen (to the plot’s mixed benefit) and Helen Mirren’s performance stands out, but it’s disappointing that the distinctive heart of the first film takes a back seat to that expanded scope.”
Want to read more about Shazam: Fury of the Gods? Check out how Shazam tried to get Henry Cavill for the first movie as well as Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg’s response to middling reviews.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
