‘Shazam!’ Star Zachary Levi Blasts Hollywood for Releasing “Garbage” Movies

In a rather ironic twist of events, Zachary Levi — who starred in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, a.k.a one of the biggest flops of the year — is now blasting Hollywood for releasing “garbage.”

The controversial actor is known for his roast-worthy Instagram rants — like his bizarre accusation that Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson sabotaged the post-credits scene in the Shazam! sequel. Amid voicing support for the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Levi’s latest tirade urged moviegoers to “actively not choose” to see bad films.

“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 told a cheering crowd at a Chicago Fan Expo on Saturday (Aug. 12), per Entertainment Weekly.

He continued, “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.”

It should be noted that this is coming from the guy whose recent box-office bomb turned out to be the third-worst opening weekend for any movie in the DCEU, according to ScreenRant. While Shazam! Fury of the Gods scored an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 49% from critics. Moreover, it grossed merely $133.5 million from the global box office — in comparison the $368 million brought in by its predecessor, 2019’s Shazam!.

According to Levi, the underwhelming success of Shazam! Fury of the Gods is due to online “haters and trolls.”

“I think even just the world, from the first movie to the second movie, the world has shifted so much,” Levi recently told the FilmUp Podcast. “Social media has shifted so much. Hate, online hate and haters and trolls, and factions and all that has just gotten more galvanized in its toxicity.”

He added, “I think there are people who genuinely, unfortunately, want to destroy certain projects because they don’t like them, or they don’t like me.”

For those who do still like Levi’s movies, you can catch him starring opposite Gina Rodriguez in Spy Kids: Armageddon, which is set to release on Netflix on Sept. 22.