Shazam 2 actor Rachel Zegler hits out at ‘senselessly mean’ criticisms of underperforming DC sequel

‘It’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays,’ said the ‘West Side Story’ star

Shazam! Fury of the Gods star Rachel Zegler has branded some of the criticisms levelled at the DC Comics sequel “senselessly mean”.

The film, a follow-up to the well-received 2019 film Shazam!, has recieved underwhelming reviews from critics, and is on course to be a box office bomb.

Writing on Twitter, Zegler, who is best known for her starring role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, pleaded the film’s case.

“Hey our film is actually really good!” she wrote. “But mostly i just absolutely loved making it and the people i met whilst doing so :) go see it! give it a chance. we have an 85 per cent audience score for a reason.”

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an audience score of 87 per cent positive at time of writing.

However, the critics’ score sits at just 53 per cent, substantially lower than the original Shazam! (which scored an impressive 90).

“Some people out there and just being… senselessly mean,” Zegler continued. “And it’s unnecessary.

“And i know, i know, ‘if you can’t handle the heat…’ and all that nonsense, and you’re right. but our film is actually very good. it’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays. that’s okay. we’re good.”

In a two-star review for The Independent, Clarrise Loughrey described Fury of the Gods as “a film that isn’t without promise, but feels far too messy and corporatised to have any real affection for”.

Helen Mirren in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods' (Warner Bros Pictures)

“[Helen] Mirren, [Lucy] Liu, and Zegler seem to have (accurately) understood that all that’s needed from them is to look cool in their costumes and then cash their cheques,” she writes.

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“It may not be practical to build an entire film around how sexy it is when Mirren casually adjusts her crown, but it’s also the only truly valuable thing Fury of the Gods has to offer.”

This week, Zegler was asked what drove her to take on a role in the DC superhero franchise, prompting an unusually candid response.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is out in cinemas now.