Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ Star Kumail Nanjiani Body-Shamed for Being Too Ripped
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Kumail Nanjiani, one of the stars of the upcoming Marvel superhero movie “Eternals,” was body-shamed for being too buff for his role. How it started: The 42-year-old Pakistani American actor and comedian shared a picture on New Year’s Day, showing a slice of pandan tres leches cake while wearing a tight shirt that accentuated his muscular physique.
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His post ignited a debate online, with some people calling Nanjiani “unrecognizable.” Others joked and accused him of using steroids, according to BuzzFeed.
It's really funny that Kumail had to take a bunch of steroids for a movie and then Covid hit so he just kept having to do steroids for a year
— David Spector (@spectordeforce) January 3, 2021
It’s also funny that’s as big as he can get with that much steroids.
— 🖖🏻✌🏻🤘🏻 (@theabradioshow) January 3, 2021
Every celebrity transformation is due to steroids but kumail's is a lot more egregious because his head is changing shape
— man who can't bench 300 ➡️ The Chode Classic (@ChodeoClown) January 3, 2021
someone needs to keep kumail from the steroids, man
— Bobby “I Don’t Know You” Hill (@sonuvafitch) January 3, 2021
However, the accusation of steroid use has been around since late 2020.
You used to be a comic, before you became and activist. But for a guy who doesn’t like masculinity, you got shot full of steroids to get your last role.
— ph43d2u5 (@ph43d2u5) December 10, 2020
Can we talk about how you definitely used steroids?
— Alex Stein #99 (@alexstein99) December 9, 2020
Fans to the rescue: Many of Nanjiani’s fans did not take the accusations lightly — they took to Twitter to defend the actor from the body-shaming trolls.
Some of the most popular tweets pointed out that many other actors have gone through body changes for superhero roles, yet none of them were criticized or ridiculed.
Chris Evans gets jacked for Captain America: “😍🤩😍🤩”
Chris Hemsworth gets jacked for Thor: “😍🤩😍🤩” Chris Pratt gets jacked for Star-Lord: “😍🤩😍🤩” Kumail Nanjiani gets jacked for Eternals: “He’s clearly using steroids” I can’t qwhite see what’s the difference. — alias (@itsjustanx) January 3, 2021
Body shaming Kumail Nanjiani for...being jacked? Is way weird. Especially since all the Chris’ have done the same super-soldier program and never got any flack for it. I wonder what the difference is? pic.twitter.com/NIeUf3DwAb
— Jake Low (@JacobYLow) January 3, 2021
Henry Cavill was able to get HUGE for man of steel without steroids. He has said this publicly.
So it’s impossible that Kumail Nanjiani had the same result from hard work and exercise? And Cavill looks slightly larger than Nanjiani at 1 point? Sounds like racism is afoot. pic.twitter.com/NagaC7nPjN — Where the $ DOESNT reside (@ValerieComplex) January 4, 2021
Other fans quickly shut down all the accusations online and defended the actor’s physical appearance.
After Chadwick Boseman’s death there was a lot of talk about “never make fun of people’s bodies, you don’t know what anyone’s going through” but Kumail Nanjiani posts like. an average picture of himself eating dinner and that’s our the window I guess
— Jael 💛 (@theshimmer_) January 3, 2021
Kumail Nanjiani looks awesome af and I wish I looked as half as good as him.
Y'all clearly didn't learn your lessons from making fun of Chadwick Boseman's physical appearance. Notice how y'all only make fun of the men of color, but not your white favs. pic.twitter.com/9ge7z4v3Lj — Professional Fool Runner 🇵🇷 🤜🏼👈🏼 (@RunTheFools4) January 3, 2021
Kumail Nanjiani is trending because people are mad he's...exercising? Alrighty then.
— Joshua Gale (@joshuafett75) January 3, 2021
Nanjiani made everyone’s jaws drop when he first shared a picture of his new look back in 2019. In an Instagram post, he mentioned that he would not have made it had Marvel not helped him get to where he is now.
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"I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world,” he said. “I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time." Feature Image via Getty (left), @kumailn (right)
