Kumail Nanjiani already had a sizable collection of film credits by the time Eternals came along, but bulking up was new territory for him on the Marvel movie. The actor put on a lot of muscle to play Kingo in the MCU’s 26th theatrical installment. It’s been a little over four years since Eternals’ release, and while his Kingo remains uncertain, Nanjiani has joked about maintaining his impressive physique no matter what.
In addition to starring opposite Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis in Ella McCay, last month also saw Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts, the comedian’s latest stand-up special, becoming available to stream with a Hulu subscription. In it, he brought up how some of his detractors online decided Nanjiani would be the first person they “mock for getting in shape.” After saying noting how hard it was to achieve his current physique and joking that he hasn’t “smelled cake in years,” Nanjiani declared:
And now I know all of you are waiting for me to go back to how I was. Oh, it’ll make you so happy if I go back to how I was. So, now I’m stuck in this prison, ’cause I don’t want to give you the satisfaction.
This joke came out of Kumail Nanjiani addressing the five kinds of negative responses he got online when he talked about going to therapy, the first of which was, “Oh, your big Hollywood movie didn’t do well? Are we supposed to feel sorry for you?” This refers to how Eternals was met with mixed critical reception and only made a little over $402 million worldwide off a reported $236.2 million budget. Although it ended up being the sixth-highest-grossing movie of 2021, that performance wasn’t enough to make it profitable, and Nanjiani countered that while others don’t have to feel sorry him, he’s allowed to feel sorry for himself.
Going back to his physique, Kumail Nanjiani continued to joke about how he’s going to keep that muscle packed on regardless of whether or not we see him as Kingo again, even if it means giving up cake for good. In his words:
There’s no reason for me to be buff anymore, but I am because fuck you. I’ll be doing pushups on my deathbed because fuck you. When I look at cake and want to eat it, I think of how happy it’ll make you if I eat it and that gives me the strength to not eat it.
The funny thing is that Kumail Nanjiani didn’t bulk up for Eternals because it was a requirement from Marvel Studios, but because he “needed to change how people saw me so I could have the type of opportunities I was excited about.” So regardless of what the future holds in store for him MCU-wise, maintaining his current physique could help him score more outside-of-the-box roles. Jokes aside, I hope he does indulge in cake again. That kind of deliciousness shouldn’t be avoided for the rest of his life.
Nanjiani signed on to do six Marvel movies, a video game and a theme park ride. However, following Eternals’ underwhelming performance, there are still no plans for a sequel, and the closest we’ve come to those events being acknowledged is Celestial Island being a key plot point in Captain America: Brave New World. Nanjiani also voiced an alternate version of Kingo in the What If… ? episode "What If... Agatha Went to Hollywood?”, which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Marvel finds a way to bring the character back into the fold on the big screen someday.
