Adria Arjona sure is excited to be playing "the woman" in Man Of Tomorrow

Spoiler culture in superhero movies has created a now-common, if still wild, phenomenon that forces actors to get all cagey when discussing their next job—lest they irk the directors, producers, and studio heads who think withholding the names of their roles before a release date somehow makes watching the finished product better. Does this caginess make the actor’s job easier or harder? Ask Andrew Garfield, who morphed into a bold-faced liar in the lead-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home, or Sadie Sink, who was forbidden to reveal the name of the character she was playing in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Withholding superhero roles for certain actors is an attempt to yank the wool over the eyes of scrutinizing pop culture hawks, done in the name of preserving the experience of having a theater full of people go “ohhhhh” when the reveal finally hits the screen, as if they didn’t already know what was up. Once all is revealed and that initial sting of “I KNEW IT” subsides, one wonders whether all this mystery and hype was worth all the secrecy. 

Anyway, Adria Arjona has been very polite about not revealing her upcoming role in James Gunn’s Superman sequel, Man Of Tomorrow. Rumors initially swirled that she was co-starring as Maxima, the Warrior Queen of Almerac, though Gunn immediately took to social media to cast doubt on the reports, as if anyone had actually bought them to begin with. Making these Maxima rumors even murkier is a recent Women’s Health video promoting Arjona’s new film, Onslaught, where the actor walks viewers through her workout regimen, which only became more intense as she entered the Man Of Tomorrow production. Arjona was candid about the stresses of maintaining peak physical condition, even if working out is something she enjoys doing. “I’m enjoying the transformation, but it’s hard work,” she said, drenched in sweat and amped up as a certain Amazonian Warrior might be after a good fight. “I’ve never felt stronger, but it’s hard.”