Zachary Levi criticizes Hollywood, saying “they don’t care enough” when they put out “garbage content”

Last Updated on August 24, 2023

Shazam: Fury of the Gods star Zachary Levi has been making the rounds recently after the actor got in hot water for speaking with an audience at Comic-Con Manchester in the United Kingdom. A video of Levi depicted the actor working his way around speaking about his projects when the current SAG-AFTRA strike mandates that members of the union are not permitted to promote their movies or shows. His comments especially struck a nerve when he referred to the promotion stipulation as “so dumb” as he felt he should be able to share with the fans.

Levi has continued to be outspoken at a Chicago Fan Expo on Saturday. According to Entertainment Weekly, the Shazam star criticized Hollywood studios for putting out garbage content. In the midst of showing support to his union, Levi shared his frustration with the studio system, “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.” This was met with enthused applause.

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.”

After Shazam: Fury of the Gods underperformed at the box office amid the underwhelming critics’ response, Levi has been vocal about his support of the film in the face of the negativity. Weeks after the release, he went live on Instagram, passionately addressing its flop and recently, he appeared on The FilmUp Podcast where he says he’s still confused about the negative reception, “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. 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.”