Hugh Jackman said goodbye to Wolverine in 2017 but has said he will carry the character with him always — just not the diet or workout regime.
In a tribute to the beloved character and Jackman’s insanely shredded physique, “The Eternals” star Kumail Nanjiani posed as the X-Men character in the most recent issue of Men’s Health, which highlighted how the actor transformed his body for the upcoming Marvel movie.
Jackson shared his reaction to Nanjiani’s homage in the magazine with Fox News while at the launch of Montblanc’s first-ever Smart Headphones MB01 in New York City.
“Wow! That really looks like the set,” he smiled. “That is so cool.”
Jackson complimented Nanjiani’s dedicated to packing on the muscle — “If you’ve done all that work, get your shirt off!”
Kumail Nanjiani paying tribute to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. (Emily Shur for Men’s Health)
The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony-winner spent 17 years of his life playing Wolverine in the X-Men universe. During that time, he was on and off intense diets and workout regimes to get him in the best, most shredded shape possible to portray the mutant action hero.
“I do heavy weights in the morning for about an hour, and then I do 45 minutes of higher-volume lifting in the afternoon. My least favorite is the legs … I do quite a few chin-ups and rows. I do mostly old-school lifting with a lot of squats. I actually do more front squats than I do back squats, and I do a lot of deadlifting,” Jackman told the LA Times in 2014.
Besides hitting the gym for hours a day, the Broadway star would not only eat more but eat in a more strategic way.
“There were times when I would literally eat with the mindset of working out. ‘One more mouthful, one more, come on, come on, you’ve got to finish this meal,'” he told Men’s Journal in 2013.
Nanjiani’s fitness journey didn’t come easy, either. The 41-year-old actor revealed on Instagram in December, “I found out a year ago I was going to be in Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ and decided I wanted to transform how I looked. 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.”
“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,” he added.
