In the wake of the release of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” there has been a lot of discussion about the film ranging from its artistic merits to its strong performances and themes of loss.
There’s also a part of the internet focused on actor Tenoch Huerta and his role as Namor, or more specifically, focused on his outfit. The character is famous for his winged feet, pointy ears, gold bracelets and green speedo.
The film translated that appearance fairly well, adding a rather large Mesoamerican influence to the costume along with switching out the speedos for square-cut shorts (but staying loyal to the color).
However, eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a discrepancy between a shot in the film’s first trailer and with the final film itself – the studio appears to have gone in and digitally altered the character’s shorts in profile.
A side-by-side comparison shot on Twitter has gone viral and led to articles at Polygon among several other outlets going into lengthy investigations into what happened.
Now, Rolling Stone has talked with Huerta himself about the online chatter and the actor has taken things in stride, having fun with his response:
“[Laughs] The only thing that I can say is: the original was the photo in the right. Without [the bulge]! That’s original. No, I mean, I’m not going to lie to people. Every man in the world, we have fragile masculinity, but not in that issue. I will say, the right one, the real one is the photo on the right.”
Huerta also reveals he’s having to keep up his fitness regime, though not as intensely, for when Marvel comes calling again to get Namor back out in the water:
“I actually worry about it. No, it’s a big problem, man. I can’t cut off my amount of tacos from now on. But, yeah, it’s funny. I don’t know. It’s something that my trainer told me. ‘Okay, man, now you can rest, you can chill and take your time. But not too much, because if you have to play Namor one more time, you need to go through the same process all over again. So it’s better you take care of yourself and don’t get crazy with tacos.'”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is currently in cinemas.
