Zachary Levi Is Very Aware Of The ‘Shazam!’ & ‘Captain Marvel’ Conundrum

Zachary Levi hopes that fans will get over the changing of his Shazam! character’s name from Captain Marvel to the titular magic phrase.

Zachary Levi has had a very interesting past with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2013, the actor joined the film Thor: The Dark World to play the role of Fandral, played in the first Thor film by Josh Dallas. Levi was then very briefly featured in Thor: Ragnarok, though his character was very quickly killed off during the film’s first act. This year, Zachary Levi will be playing the titular hero in DC’s Shazam!. Although the character will be referred to by the name Shazam, the character was known for decades in the comics as Captain Marvel.

Fans might notice that Captain Marvel is also the name of a classic Marvel comics character who will be featured in her first big-screen adventure just a few weeks before Shazam! hits theaters. During our Shazam! set visit last April, Zachary Levi made it very aware that he knows the difference between the two characters’ names and hopes fans will get over the name change when the film opens in April.

“You guys all know when I say Shazam I mean Captain Marvel, vice versa? Because his name is now that and I know a lot of people are upset about that, but a lot of those people just need to get over it. How do you sell Pepsi without calling it Pepsi? I don’t know…Anyway, moving on.”

Although the MCU solo adventure Captain Marvel will be using the moniker previously used by Shazam, DC’s Captain Marvel outdates Marvel’s by almost thirty years. Both of the heroes’ upcoming films will mark the first time that either of them has appeared on the big screen, though Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel was briefly mentioned in last year’s Avengers: Infinity War. 

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all news regarding Shazam! and Captain Marvel as soon as more information becomes available. Which other DC hero would you like to see Zachary Levi’s character interact with on the big screen? Out of the films mentioned above, which are you most excited about? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, and Djimon Honsou.

We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).

Shazam! will be released in theaters on April 5, 2019.