Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White Are Swole-as-Hell in The Iron Claw’s first-look image

Once decried by jealous men everywhere as but a walking ab, Zac Efron has defied his critics in recent years with a whole locker room’s worth of indie movie roles. First, the biggest shock of ‘em all: he portrayed Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a downright nasty biographical crime pic of the American mass murderer that also starred, of all people, Metallica’s James Hetfield.

Last year, there was stuff like the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter and somehow Oscar-winning director Peter Farrelly’s *The Greatest Beer Run Ever—*and next, he’ll look to take it up a notch in wrestling family biopic The Iron Claw, from A24, Hollywood’s answer to Supreme.

Wrestling is obviously very cool and has never, ever not been so, but there’s an extra-special reason why this is such a tantalizing prospect. Director Sean Durkin is known for his psychodramatic proclivities, digging into the interiority of characters played by Sean Harris, Rory Kinnear, Cary Coons, Elizabeth Olsen and Jude Law. We love depth! 2020’s The Nest was a big hit among lovers of movies and Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” alike at Sundance Film Festival that year, as was the psychothriller Martha Marcy May Marlene in the same spot back in 2011.

Oh yeah, and Efron looks absolutely fuckin’ jacked. Evergreen! Here’s everything else you need to know about The Iron Claw.

Who’s going to star in The Iron Claw?

Efron might be the headline casting for this square circle affair, but he’s set to be joined by two super-hot acting talents in their own right.

Jeremy Allen White, down to play Von Erich brother Kerry, is hot off the heels of his major Hollywood breakthrough in the form of Disney’s The Bear, and Harris Dickinson, basking in acclaim in the wake of Ruben Östlund’s Cannes-winner Triangle of Sadness, will step up as brother David. While we have had the odd peak of Efron in one of the greatest wigs of all time, A24 has released its first official image of the foursome ahead of its release. Naturally, Efron is jacked to the nines, but White, whose recent foray into the world of short shorts has sent the internet into a tizzy, also admitted to gaining 40lbs of muscle for the role.

Most recently Pam & Tommy‘s Lily James joined the ensemble, though her role is yet to be disclosed.

What’s The Iron Claw about?

As well known to wrestling aficionados and r/squaredcircle frequenters as the Harts or Flairs, The Iron Claw will centre on the seminal late-century Von Erich wrestling dynasty. The title is derived from the famous submission hold, a variant of which was used in the WWE era by The Great Khali, and by all accounts leaves the victim very, very sore. “But as well as fighting battles in the ring, they fought the ”Von Erich curse” outside it,” the official synopsis reads.

So what was the Von Erich curse, we hear you ask? It’s a good question. Essentially, it refers to a pattern of deaths suffered at the hands of the Von Erich family over the years, from drowning to enteritis to suicide and cancer. Awful, tragic stuff, but one can certainly understand why a filmmaker of Durkin’s ilk, an artist equally fascinated by familial strife and the macabre, would jump on the opportunity to explore it.

When will The Iron Claw be released?

Along with its first-look image of the foursome of bros, A24 officially announced that The Iron Claw will be dropkicking into cinemas this Christmas—December 22, to be exact! Time for a celebratory bell ring.

So, How ripped is Zac Efron, again?

Hey, we’ll let you be the judge. (Very. Very!!!)

This story originally ran on British GQ with the title “Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White are swole-as-f*ck in The Iron Claw’s first-look image”