'The Wheel of Time's Taylor Napier swaps the cloak for a Speedo photoshoot

Taylor Napier broke ground playing Maksim, a warrior in a queer throuple in The Wheel of Time. Over three seasons, the actor became a fan favorite and a sex symbol playing a warder in the fantasy series while offering a rare representation of bisexual men on TV. The sexual, loving relationship between Maksim, Ivhon (Emmanuel Imani/Anthony Kaye), and their Aes Sedai Alanna (Priyanka Bose) was among several progressive stories on the Prime Video series based on the books by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

Though the Rosamund Pike-led The Wheel of Time ended this year after three seasons, Napier, who is queer, amassed a devoted fan base throughout the run. In a beachy photoshoot with Ramon Christian, the actor reveals a few new sides to himself.

“I loved it. I go to the gym a lot. I work out a lot, and I don’t do that to put a baggy sweater over my body,” Napier tells Out about baring so much for the shoot. “It is nice to be able to show off the hard work and be able to celebrate everything I put into being healthy, but also, honestly, a little bit my vanity.”

With fame often comes increased social media visibility, and Napier (@taylornapier89) is aware of what it takes to keep an audience engaged.

“It’s a weird kind of cross-section of this version of yourself that you have to put out there, and you have to sell your brand, in a weird way. And you have to kind of decide what your brand is,” he says. “For some people, that is sexy photos, it’s cooking, or relatability.”

A social media persona “is this one side of yourself that you’re trying to promote, you’re trying to sell yourself as, and it is a bit tricky because it does feel as though it underplays the art of what I’ve done, you know, on the show, and what all actors do,” he says while acknowledging it’s a tool for promotion.

Scroll through Napier’s steamy photoshoot with the photographer Ramon Christian (@ramonchristian.photo) ahead.