Zachary Levi is opening up about the differences between Shazam and Harold in his new movie, Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Levi, who played the titular character in NBC’s Chuck series, starred an adult Billy Batson/Shazam in DC Studios Shazam!, which was released in 2019, and the 2023 sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Levi will now play Harold in Sony Pictures’ Harold and the Purple Crayon, which opens in United States theaters on August 2, 2024.
What did Zachary Levi say about Harold and Shazam?
Speaking with ComingSoon in an exclusive interview, Levi was asked what the biggest differences between Harold and Shazam are, given that both characters have a “boy-like wonder” to them.
“Yeah, you know there is definitely some Venn diagram crossover in the two of them,” Levi said. “I would say that the biggest difference is that Shazam, Billy Batson, he’s a real teenager in the real world who’s dealt with lots of loss, lots of anger, lots of sadness, lots of pain. He’s young and immature in the way he handles certain things and certainly in his super self because his immaturity gets almost amplified in his super self because now he’s got superpowers and he is trying to fight bad guys and save the world, but he’s still learning how to use all of that. But he does understand the pain and the sadness and the things and those types of things.
“Whereas Harold is not a teenager. He’s actually a grown man, right? But from his animated world that has no pain, no suffering, no real sadness or anger or any consequences, no real stakes. Everything is fun, everything’s optimism. But then going into the real world now, he really is this fish outta water. His immaturity is not because of his age as much of his complete lack of experience of dealing with any of these types of three-dimensional emotions. So, that’s the biggest thing.
“In playing Billy Batson, I could tap into anger and sadness in a more authentic way. Whereas playing Harold, he had no idea what any of that was. You know, he’s getting hurt, literally physically hurt, for the first time. He’s like, what is this thing? What am I feeling right now? Having no idea what these social cues are of people being angry with him and honking their horns while he is blocking traffic and he thinks they’re just saying hi. That is a big difference between the two characters.”
Both Shazam! and Shazam! Fury of the Gods are now streaming on Max.
