With Shazam! out Friday, Warner Bros. is doing a bit of cross promotion with Zachary Levi taking on his bestie, Freddy Freeman, in a quick round of Mortal Kombat to build hype for Mortal Kombat 11, which will be released later this month.Levi suits up as the Big Cheese and crushes Freddy (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer, but not seen on screen) in a very electrifying round, although it's in the previous game, Mortal Kombat X. As expected, Shazam's playing as the God of Thunder and Lightning, Raiden, while Freddy's playing as his brash kindred spirit, Johnny Cage.
Things don't go well for the latter, though, as Shazam unleashes a barrage of Raiden's electric moves, even fighting with his eyes closed to defeat his opponent. The superhero celebrates by yelling "Finished Him!" but sadly, we don't get to see if he actually pulled out a Fatality.
It's a clever marketing stunt, since Warner Bros. owns NetherRealm Studios, which develops the MK franchise, as well as the Injustice video games. Interestingly enough, before Midway Games was absorbed by Warner Bros. the studio put out the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fighting game, of which Shazam (then called Captain Marvel) was part of. This scene, which is included in the film, is a meta moment that shows that Shazam has some serious moves, in real life and on the console.
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Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as the ancient wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Frederick “Freddy†Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez. The film opens Friday nationwide.
Mortal Kombat 11 releases on April 23 for PlayStation4, Xbox One, PC and Switch.