Kumail Nanjiani is about to join the MCU in this year’s The Eternals, where he’ll play Kingo, but the comedian/actor gets into character as a very different Marvel hero in this new photo shoot: none other than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
The internet was blown away when the Silicon Valley star revealed his superhero bod transformation late last year, and now Men’s Health Magazine has capitalized on his ripped figure to have Nanjiani recreate famous movie scenes as iconic jacked characters. These include Bruce Willis’ John McClane (Die Hard), Tom Cruise’s Maverick from Top Gun, American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman (as played by Christian Bale) and yes, Jackman’s Logan.
Of course, Nanjiani is just one of the many stars in The Eternals’ ensemble cast, which also includes the likes of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry, Laura Ridloff and Kit Harington. Like all but Harrington (he’s playing Black Knight), Nanjiani is portraying one of the eponymous Eternals, immortal god-like beings who have lived on Earth for centuries. We recently learned that Kingo has one of the coolest secret identities of any superhero ever, too: his day job is being a major Bollywood star. We’ll even get a fully-fledged musical number in the movie.
As for Wolverine, it’s true that Marvel is currently on the hunt for someone to replace Hugh Jackman as one of the leads of their upcoming X-Men reboot. The idea that Logan could be reimagined as a person of color is an interesting one as well, not that this is something that’s been rumored, mind you. Other X-Men, however, such as Professor X or Magneto, may end up being played by black actors.
Following Black Widow in May, The Eternals is the second MCU film of the year, arriving in November.