Next year Zachary Levi will play the title role of DC comics movie Shazam. However, it looks like he may have to deal with people being overly critical of his body every day between now and then. The actor is dealing with an influx of criticism from people who think that, rather than working out, he's wearing a padded suit to play the role of the superhero. Levi posted pictures of his current arms as evidence that he has in fact been doing the work, but that hasn't silenced his critics. However, his critics aren't silencing him either, as he recently fired back at a magazine story about the situation.
Last week Men Health ran a story about Zachary Levi's initial evidence that he was, in fact, working out. However, rather than simply reporting on the situation, the article basically made the argument that the evidence wasn't good enough. Of course, they also decided to tag him in the Twitter post of the story, leading to Levi responding, and figuring it must have been a slow news day.
The image in question was an unofficial one taken on the set where Shazam is filming in Toronto right now. It shows Zachary Levi dressed in the classic costume, and he is looking seriously muscled. However, some seemed to feel he was looking too muscled and that he was actually wearing a padded suit. Even after showing that Levi is in fact in serious workout mode, it seems that some feel the set image still looks more ripped than he does.
At the end of the day, believe what you want and move on with your life. it seems ridiculous that we're nitpicking over the look of the character based entirely on a single image, that we can't verify the authenticity of, to begin with. Anything from the angle of the shot to the lighting could influence what we're seeing there. It's just not a great picture to really judge what we're going to see when Shazam hits the screen. Zachery Levi also shouldn't have to defend his own body, but he has, and that should really be the end of it.
In the end, Shazam is going to be greatly changed due to the use of digital and other effects, just as every superhero movie is. You can never be sure that what you're seeing on the screen resembles reality, that's part of the point of making movies in the first place. It's clear that Zachery Levi has been doing the work to build some serious muscle, more work than most of us would ever do by choice. Can we leave the guy's body alone and just enjoy the movie?
We'll all get to see Shazam, who I'm sure will look awesome, in just about a year, on April 5, 2019.
