(Spoilers for The Iron Claw will be found below.)
Jeremy Allen White delivered a frequently gut-wrenching and often funny performance on Shameless for eleven full seasons. Still, it took The Bear‘s first season becoming a sleeper hit for him to wake up with a pile of A24 scripts waiting for his perusal. One of those projects, The Iron Claw, will arrive in theaters for Christmas season just in time for everyone to wish for a pile of jacked dudes under the tree.
The movie will have a lot of deltoids on display as this quartet ^^^ portrays four members of the Von Erich wrestling family of 1980s-heyday fame. White, who admitted that the food-prep part of the project was “gross,” will take on Kerry Von Erich, and Zac Efron picks up the role of Kevin Von Erich. Not incidentally, Kevin returned to the ring to “defend” his own sons’ honor in Slammiversary 2014. You can see that clip below. Kevin hits the ring around the 3:00 mark and pulls the move, the Iron Claw, that led to the movie’s title.
That move, which literally involves a Von Erich trapping the face of his opponent as though his hand is a claw, was first popularized in the 1960s by the family’s patriarch, Fritz Von Erich, while he portrayed a Nazi villain character during matches.
As well, the story of the Von Erich family is not going to be a happy affair onscreen. A24 describes the movie as the “rise and fall of the Von Erich family, a dynasty of wrestlers who made a huge impact on the sport from the 1960s to the present day.” The film will not shy away from the so-called “Von Erich curse,” which included one of the six brothers dying in early childhood. Several of the other brothers succumbed in tragedy in adulthood, Kevin (now aged 66) remains the only brother alive.
The cast also includes Lily James and Maura Tierney along with Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich and Holt McCallany as Fritz.
The Iron Claw arrives in theaters on December 22.
