Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been hitting the gym hard! The 35-year-old put his toned body on full display as he prepares for his role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom alongside Jason Momoa, and looked totally ripped. He opted to go shirtless with a pair of sweatpants as he snapped a selfie of his defined six-pack while standing next to some large weights.
“BLACK MANTA…Back Under Construction! #Aquaman2,” he captioned the black-and-white post, which was shared on Wednesday, Aug. 4. The New Orleans native appeared to have kicked off his white sneakers, also pictured, as he stood in just black gym socks. Manta, of course, refers to the villain that Yahya originated in the original 2018 Aquaman film which he is reprising in the 2022 sequel (the character made its comic book debut, however, in 1967’s Aquaman #3).
“Sheesh!,” Bachelorette star Dale Moss commented, while actor Michael B. Jordan added, “Gainz” with a muscle flex emoji. “And here I thought I was really getting it in at the gym,” another follower hilariously posted on the photo.
In an in-depth chat with co-star Jason for Interview magazine back in Feb. 2020, the actor confessed that villain Black Manta was “the hardest” role for him to get into. “It’s a PG-13 movie. It’s not dark. I had to undo a lot of my expectations in terms of what I thought that experience would be, and then I had to get on-board with the vision and make it my own,” he expressed of his experience working on the DC comic film.
“Aquaman felt like a different medium. I’m used to doing Shakespeare. Or at least I was when I stepped into that. I had to simplify my brain and go out and have fun,” he explained to Jason, who is an action regular between Apple TV+ See, film Dune, and, of course, being Aquaman himself. “Aquaman felt like a clown class more than anything,” Yahya also said.