Zachary Levi has ticked off both the MCU and the DCEU in his career, having played Fandral in Thor: The Dark World and, much more notably, the lead in this April’s Shazam! The star’s now revealed a dream he once had though to join the X-Men universe as well. And as none other than the Merc with a Mouth himself, Deadpool.
While attending Fan Expo Boston, Levi came clean that he used to want to play Wade Wilson on the big screen, though he admits this wish is going back awhile. Nowadays, he loves Ryan Reynolds in the part, with the actor saying:
“I wanted to be Deadpool for so long. Like a long, long [time ago]. When I was reading Deadpool I wanted to be Deadpool, but Ryan is crushing that. They’ve done so well with creating that.”
Levi then reflected on how Deadpool and Shazam! actually have similar approaches to the superhero genre. Though the DC movie is more family-friendly than the R-rated Fox hit, they both poke fun at the mainline universes they’re a part of.
Here’s how the actor explained his take:
“I actually kind of think that Deadpool and Shazam! are similar movies in that we’re both satellites of a greater universe that we get to kind of look at and point at and realize as an audience we can all do that together. Deadpool got to take all those potshots at the Marvel universe [laughs], particularly the X-Men franchise, and it was so genius. And that we get to be on the outside, existing within the DC Universe but not necessarily having to subscribe to everything that’s already there.”
It’s not too surprising to hear that Levi used to want to be Deadpool, as we know he already tried out for another tongue-in-cheek superhero role before he landed Shazam. The star was previously pretty close to becoming Star-Lord in the MCU before Chris Pratt ended up getting the gig. After being foiled on both these fronts, then, it’s nice that Levi finally got the role that was perfectly suited to him in the form of the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel.