Popverse's top stories of the day

• Harley Quinn is making April Fools Day 2025 one to remember with a not-so-sweet-smelling DC comic book special
• Watch the D&D, Warhammer, Mega Man, and more anthology panel Secret Level from Prime Video, filmed at NYCC 2024
• Nintendo's long-time Mario voice actor reveals the secret behind voicing Mario's Dad in the movie (and how it goes back to his original audition decades ago)

We all know that getting into superhero shape is tough – despite what those weird ads on social media tell you. Now imagine having to keep working yourself down to negligible body fat after piling on pounds for another role and you’ve got the hell that Sebastian Stan has been living in as he played Donald Trump in the upcoming biopic The Apprentice and the Winter Soldier in the MCU’s anti-hero ensemble Thunderbolts* almost side-by-side. How did he pull it off? The power of PB&J sandwiches.

During a sit down with GQ, Stan, who has been playing Bucky Barnes in Marvel movies since 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, explained his unintentional yo-yo diet. To film The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan wanted to embody the future president as much as possible, and that included knocking back loads of Coca-Cola and scarfing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to emulate Trump’s diet and to fill in the former president’s signature ill-fitting suits.

That wouldn’t be a problem, normally, except production got delayed on The Apprentice, which cleared up Sebastian Stan’s schedule to film Thunderbolts*. That meant getting his body fat back to the microscopic levels we’ve grown to expect from our superhero films. Then 2023’s Hollywood strikes hit and Thunderbolts* filming was also delayed, forcing Stan to put on his Trump weight once again.

“I’m f*ckin’ 41; I just worked pretty hard to get in shape here!” was Sebastian Stan’s reaction to having to pile on the pounds again, which is understandable because he was still going to have to lose that weight – again – before filming Thunderbolts* for its 2025 release. Essentially, Sebastian Stan has been living in a kind of weight loss-gain cycle that would be a cry for help from anyone in any other industry.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters