Zachary Levi Says First Shazam Movie ‘Desperately’ Tried to Get Henry Cavill: ‘We Were Thwarted’

Shazam star Zachary Levi is continuing to talk about the goings-on behind the scenes of the DCEU, revealing yesterday that he and the team behind the first Shazam! movie tried “desperately” to get Henry Cavill’s Superman in it.

In an Instagram video posted yesterday, Levi told viewers that “we have been doing everything we can to fight for you, the fans – yes even you fans that don’t like me.”

“All of you fans who love Henry Cavill, we tried desprately to get Henry Cavill in the first movie,” he said. “He wasn’t a headless Superman because we wanted him to be a headless Superman. We were thwarted. All of these hardworking people were thwarted. We were not allowed to have that happen.”

He also continued to address the Shazam-Black Adam crossover that didn’t end up happening, claiming that the original plan for the post credits scene, which would have seen Shazam recruited into the Justice Society by Hawkman and Cyclone, was “thwarted” — though he doesn’t name by who.

Spoiler alert: Spoilers for Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Black Adam below.

The real post credits scene of Fury of the Gods still sees Shazam recruited into the Justice Society, but not by the Hawkman and Cyclone, who were established in Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. Instead, Shazam was inducted into the superhero group by Emilia Harcourt and John Economos from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.

According to a report from The Wrap, Johnson supposedly “sabotaged” the Shazam post-credits scene by blocking Hawkman and Cyclone from appearing in it. The move was made in an effort by Johnson to start a new storyline in the DCEU surrounding a face-off between Black Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman. Johnson’s idea was that these are the two most powerful beings in DC, so the fans would love to see them fight. Makes sense, but it’s still odd seeing as Black Adam and Shazam are embattled rivals in the comics, basically the direct opposites of each other.

Nevertheless, the Rock campaigned heavily for Superman and Black Adam to see each other in battle, but, seeing as neither Johnson nor Cavill will be included in the new DC Universe spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran, that’s highly unlikely to happen.

Previously, Levi had shared The Wrap’s post on his Instagram story with the caption: “The truth will set you free.” Now, Levi has confirmed that Hawkman and Cyclone were indeed blocked from being in the post credits scene — but he doesn’t ever put up the Rock’s name to blame.

“I may or may not have, you know, reposted something in my stories about a story that I had nothing to do with, that [The Wrap] had reported on,” Levi said. “And then I got flack about it, because people were saying, ‘What are you doing? You’re trying to blame this guy because your movie’s not doing well.’ Listen, I haven’t blamed anybody. There’s not one single person that I have blamed for anything about the way that our movie has performed.”

He continues: “People are slagging on James Gunn because Jennifer Holland, his wife who is an actor and is in Peacemaker and Suicide Squad… we used Jennifer and Steve in that scene in Shazam. That was not the original intent. The original intent was to have Hawkeye and Cyclone to be there inviting me into the Justice Society. Walter Hamada, Peter Safran, David Sandberg… we had an awesome scene and we were thwarted… I’m merely coming to the defense of the truth. Truth is good. We should all live in it.”

Whose idea it was to cut out Hawkman and Cyclone has not been confirmed, but, nevertheless, it seems that Levi wants the truth to be known.

Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.