Did Marvel Edit Tenoch Huerta Mejía's Bulge or Not?

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the actor took time out of his packed press tour to address the claims that his bulge had been edited out in order to make “everything less prominent" for the full theatrical release. Referencing a now-viral tweet appearing to show a considerably neutered version of the actor's groin than what had been previously shown in the trailer, Mejía decided to finally clear the air and confirm that "the original was the photo in the right. Without [the bulge]!”

While others might jump at the opportunity to claim credit for the impressive package, Mejía explained that he wasn't going to lie to people, adding that "every man in the world, we have fragile masculinity, but not in that issue. I will say, the right one, the real one is the photo on the right.”

In spite of his best efforts to clear the air, there are still some that believe Mejía to be too modest and that his response was actually a joke, therefore confirming that the larger bulge was in fact the real version. If we were to take Mejía's words at face value, it does raise questions about why his proportions were exaggerated in the first place.

With Marvel squarely under the Disney umbrella, it makes sense that they would attempt to tone down the sex appeal in the interest of making the movie more "family friendly." That does paint a hilarious mental image of some poor visual effects editor working overtime to painstakingly airbrush Mejía's crotch frame-by-frame as one commenter noted. But if the inverse were to be true, that would imply the existence of a much hornier vision of the new Black Panther film than the one that ended up making the cut.

Given the prevalence of skin-tight spandex across the superhero genre, it's perhaps surprising that we don't end up scrutinizing more celebrity groins that wind up on the silver screen. The closest we've gotten in recent memory was Chace Crawford's visible dick print in that one ad campaign for The Boys back in 2019, but given that show's R-rated lampooning of the genre, that was perhaps to be more expected than something from the MCU. Whether more bulge-based discourse ends up arising remains to be seen.

Photo via Getty/Gareth Cattermole