What In The Chuck? Zachary Levi Is Shazam!

Hello nerds!

Well, this was unexpected. After the swirl of rumors we heard about the casting of the lead in WB/DC's upcoming Shazam!, it appears they've landed their hero by way of an NBC sitcom. 

According to THR, Zachary Levi is set to star as the god-like alter ego Billy Batson, SHAZAM. For those unfamiliar, Shazam! is about a boy who is given the ability to magically transform into a Superman-esque hero with the powers of the gods by saying the magic word, Shazam. Shazam is an acronym for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury, and they're whom the costumed muscle mountain draws his powers from. The only downside being that while Billy is in the form of the superpowered beef castle, he still has the mind of a 12 year old. 

Levi is best known for starring in the NBC spy sitcom, Chuck, as well as appearing in the MCU as Fandral in Thor:The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok and if you've seen his work, playing an it's not too difficult to picture him giant, all-powerful manchild. The difficult thing to picture is Levi, who tends to skew towards dad-bod*, packing on the size required to go one on one with The Great One aka The Rock. *No judgement. We hear at COTA all rock proud dad-bods.

Levi took to his Instagram to share a heartfelt thanks for the opportunity to play Shazam, and he even assuages some concerns about his lack of body beef. 

Honored and greatly humbled to be a part of the #dcuniverse by bringing the original Captain Marvel to life. I am beside myself with gratitude, not only for this opportunity, but also the incredible outpouring of love and support from so many of you out there in the world. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the gym for the rest of forever. 🙏 (amazingly cool art courtesy of @bosslogic) #Shazam

A post shared by Zac Levi (@zacharylevi) on Oct 28, 2017 at 9:37am PDT

Shazam goes into production in February and is scheduled for release on April 5, 2019.