Zachary Levi was cast to play one of the Warriors Three in Thor a decade ago, but when he ran into scheduling conflicts with his series Chuck, he ultimately wound up being replaced with Josh Dallas. By the time Thor: The Dark World rolled around, it was Dallas who had scheduling conflicts this time around, which left the door open for Zachary Levi to return.
While speaking at DragonCon 2021 (via The Direct), Zachary Levi said that working on Thor was a “dream come true” as he’d spent his life as a massive Marvel fan, but it wound up proving to be a disappointment just based on how little Fandral and the other members of the Warrior Three were used.
To be honest, I had seen the first one, and I didn’t really feel like The Warriors Three were used all that well. So, I was like, ‘Hey, are you going to actually use these folks?’ And they said, ‘Oh no, we’re gonna use The Warriors Three a lot in Thor: The Dark World . A lot. Yeah, you’re going to be busy.’ And I was like, ‘Okay,’ so I signed up for it.
At the end of the day, Zachary Levi didn’t have much to do in Thor: The Dark World and even less to do in Thor: Ragnarok. “I didn’t have that much to do, you know? And really, nothing to do in the third one,” Levi explained. “I knew I was going to die in the third one. I didn’t know I was going to die, having said nothing. Even the few words they gave me were going to be taken away…and even if I didn’t die, they were probably going to snap me out of existence anyway, who am I kidding?” Despite the disappointment, Zachary Levi is very grateful for his comic book movie journey, saying “I died in the Marvel Universe… and then I got reborn in the DC Universe, and I can’t even tell you how unbelievably cool that is and how grateful I am for that.” Levi will be sporting a super-suit once again for Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which is set to hit theaters on June 2, 2023.