Remember when Zachary Levi was just another fandom heartthrob? He was the title character in Chuck, he was Flynn Rider in the beloved Disney film Tangled … well, those days are behind all of us now. Over the weekend, Levi appeared at a panel discussion between Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard and publicly endorsed Donald Trump.
“I’m not gonna take too much time, but I did just wanna just give you a little context about why Shazam is sitting here talking to you about these various things,” he opened, namedropping the superhero he played in the not-very-successful DC universe. “…I stand with Bobby, and I stand with Tulsi, and I stand with everyone else who is standing with President Trump. Because I do believe, of the two choices that we have—and we only have two—Donald Trump, President Trump, is the man that can get us there.”
Some people saw Levi’s turn into MAGAism coming. They cited an incident back in 2023 where he made an anti-vaxx post. Unfortunately, anti-vaxx sentiment often indicates a turn to right-wing conspiracy theories. And yet plenty of people never thought things would go this far, simply because Levi has criticized Trump before.
Back in 2020, prior to his anti-vaxx post, Levi wrote on what was formerly Twitter, “I am no fan or supporter of Trump, and I find his behavior to be vulgar, callous, narcissistic, and lacking empathy. And while I’m not a Conservative, I know many who backed 45 not because they liked him, but because he was the only candidate they felt cared about their needs.” Key word there would seem to be “felt”—time has shown Donald Trump doesn’t care for anyone’s needs.
And before that, in 2016, Levi implored people not to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, asking his followers, “But please, don’t vote for Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton. I believe with all my heart that neither actually cares about anything but power…” So how the heck did we get from there to here?
Well, Levi seems to have thrown a lot of vigorous support behind noted brain worm victim Robert F. Kennedy in the runup to the 2024 elections. In June he called him “our best presidential candidate by leaps and bounds” and suggested that people watch his new video rather than the presidential debate, which would according to him be, “Trump and Biden dodging questions, obfuscating, and making petty personal attacks on each other.” So he wasn’t a Trump fan a mere four months ago, it seems. But then…
…Kennedy ended his campaign and began supporting Trump. Many RFK fans reportedly also switched their allegiance to Trump at that time, and it seems that Levi was just another one of them. And that’s how we got here. It took nothing more than the influence of Kennedy from Levi to go from “no fan or supporter” to “the man that can get us there.”
But here’s what the Internet thinks
Except, there’s something else to take into consideration here: the downturn in Levi’s movie career. If you ask the internet, Levi’s sudden switch to MAGA is all because of the failure of Shazam 2. And the film was a big failure, bombing at the box office and disappearing without trace.
Levi referring to himself as “Shazam” at the panel has especially been mocked, as that’s a character he almost certainly wouldn’t have played again anyway.
So it’s been a bad few days for Shazam fans. Sorry, guys. We all know full well that Billy Batson (and Chuck Bartowski, and Flynn Rider) would never.
Published: Oct 1, 2024 11:50 am