Zachary Levi's Line Too Much for Shazam 2 - Find Out Why It Was Cut
Despite delays experienced in the past year, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is finally approaching its premiere.
Warner Bros. Discovery's panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con officially presented the sequel's first trailer, showcasing new footage of Zachary Levi's titular hero.
And though the trailer mirrored the tone of the original Shazam! movie, which was relatively well-received, that didn't stop fans from criticizing the trailer and the whole sequel, so that its director David F. Sandberg had to respond to their comments.
You see, unlike certain other DC superhero movies, Shazam! did not take itself too seriously and was fairly humorous. The whole premise of the story is that the titular superhero is a kid, who got the ability to magically transform into an adult person with superpowers (and a colorful suit).
He still has a mind of a kid, and is a bit prone to treating his superheroic adventures as a game. And that trait is not gone from the sequel, as evidenced by a scene where Zachary Levi's hero throws a truck at a dragon, and then says: "I just threw a truck at a dragon. I love my life."
That exact scene is at 2:10:
Now, a character pointing out an obvious thing for comedic effect is a common trope in modern movies, and particularly in comic book movies, and again, the character is supposed to be a kid in adult body. But the fans swiftly took to Twitter to voice their loathing of the line. Disparaging comments proliferated and were massively liked:
"I always hated the "let me say what I just did out loud to the audience" cliché," as one Shazam! fan admitted, followed by the similar sentiment of "Absolutely the worst thing comic book movie humor ever created was this trope."
This led to Sandberg responding to the Twitter users, with an assurance that the line is not going to be used after all:
"FYI that line is not in the movie. It's just in the trailer. "
However, this assurance does not change the fact that there are hesitations among the audience on how Shazam! 2 will deliver in terms of its humor. The first movie definitely had its fair share of ups and downs in terms of its comedy, and we'll see if the sequel can improve on that.