Hollywood is often written off as a bastion of unfettered liberalism, but it’s more diverse than one would think. In the comic book movie world alone there’s room for not one but two vaccine skeptics. Now it appears there might be a third: Shazam! star Zachary Levi.
Hardcore agree. https://t.co/goeEf5UQ5s
— Zachary Levi (@ZacharyLevi) January 29, 2023
Late Saturday night, Levi quote-tweeted someone who asked if Phizer, one of the companies responsible for COVID-19 vaccines, is a “real danger to the world.” Levi responded, “Hardcore agree.”
The tweet sparked a huge backlash, with people expressing horror that the guy from Chuck, who has a big, pricey comic book movie due in a month-and-a-half, could be a vaccine skeptic. It’s not clear he is, even after he followed that up hours later with a slight clarification: a post directing to a 2009 Justice Department settlement, in which the pharmaceutical company had to pay $2.3 billion for misbranding and defrauding Medicare with its arthritis medicine Bextra.
“Just one example of what I’m referring to…,” Levi wrote. As of this writing he hasn’t clarified any further.
Amidst the backlash, some shared Levi’s recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, in which he praised weepy “intellectual” Jordan Peterson and didn’t push back when Rogan deadnamed and misgendered Elliot Page.
While everyone is dragging Zachary Levi for this, don’t forget he was just one Rogan’s show admiring a transphobe & didn’t say a word when Rogan misgendered Elliot Page. He’s scum.pic.twitter.com/656kJbkVMa https://t.co/JTslUEnHyC
— Wolffe | (@LothWolffe) January 29, 2023
And of course there were lots of jokes, some about what this means for the ongoing DCEU makeover.
James Gunn after Zachary Levi made it one step easier for him to reboot all of DC
— Jason Grobstich (@jasonleegrobby) January 29, 2023
Thoughts and prayers to the WB PR who’s had their hands full with Ezra Miller’s crimes, Black Adam’s alleged leaked financials and the Henry Cavill mess, who’s now logging into twitter dot com to see Zachary Levi’s antivaxxer tweet
— Gayle Sequeira (@ProjectSeestra) January 29, 2023
Hey guys! Today’s my first day as head of Zachary Levi’s PR! I’m so excited to see what new opportunities this’ll bring, gonna take a big sip of my coffee here and head on over to his Twitter page and see what he’s up to
— Brandon Streussnig (@BrndnStrssng) January 29, 2023
Zachary Levi quits season 5 of “The Marvellous Mrs. Moderna” in mid production
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) January 29, 2023
Zachary Levi meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran tomorrow morning https://t.co/P2DIiJmvdE pic.twitter.com/nObxwKp54r
— Paul ♡♪!? (@paulthecesar) January 29, 2023
Levy’s post comes mere days after Shazam! Fury of the Gods dropped its latest trailer, which boasts a Game of Thrones reference and Lucy Liu and Dame Helen Mirren as evil sisters. Even if it winds up being true that Levy is among Hollywood’s elite anti-vaxxers, it might not matter at the box office, at least. Letitia Wright’s antics didn’t torpedo Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man 3 will probably do fine despite Evangeline Lily getting called out by her own colleagues.
(Via The Daily Beast)