\u201cVery soon \u2013 and I mean very soon \u2013 I\u2019m going to be a man among greats.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after he made this TikTok<\/a>, the crooked-toothed<\/a>, frequently cross-eyed<\/a> Brit had all his wishes come true. His name started to make headlines around the world, although admittedly they were less concerned with his musical talents and more focused on one question: is Mr Fantasy secretly New Zealand actor KJ Apa<\/a>? From the matching tattoos to the inimitable jawline, it\u2019s clear that nothing in human history has ever been so clearly KJ Apa. So what is the former Shortland Street and Riverdale star up to? And also why can\u2019t I look away?\u00a0<\/p>\n To better understand Mr Fantasy, we must return to the very beginning, all the way back on August 19, 2025. This is the first known public appearance of Mr Fantasy. \u201cHello TikTok. Hello Los Angeles. Hello world. \ud83e\udd2a\ud83e\udd2a\u201d the TikTok caption reads. A man, assumed to be Mr Fantasy, bops along to \u2018Gamesofluck\u2019 by Parcels in a dishevelled brown wig and plastic aviator glasses for precisely 13 seconds. He is wearing a loud vintage shirt, his tongue touches two prominent front teeth, separated by a small gap. He says nothing, but he doesn\u2019t have to.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because after that bold arrival, Mr Fantasy would start to post near-daily updates on TikTok. They flesh out the full picture of the deeply camp aspiring British musician, who loves his dead Nan and sits somewhere between Austin Powers, Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, and David Brent covering \u2018If You Don\u2019t Know Me By Now\u2019. Outside of his love of music, Fantasy also loves Guinness (\u201cevery day is #guinness<\/a> day \ud83e\udd2a\ud83d\ude1c\u201d) and James Franco (as of writing, Mr Fantasy has 561,000 followers and follows only 12 people \u2013 all James Franco fan accounts).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people ask me \u2018where do you get your inspiration from?\u2019 and, well, straight from the horse\u2019s mouth\u2026 that horse being James Franco,\u201d Fantasy explains in one TiKTok. \u201cHe inspires the bloody heck out of me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Just last week, Fantasy made Franco proud when he released the music video for his debut single, \u2018Mr. Fantasy\u2019. With an 80s synth beat and compelling lyrics such as \u201cwait a minute \/ take it back \/ why you wasting all your time with that\u201d and resonant visuals such as a very short lime green dressing gown, it soon set the internet alight. \u201cWe\u2019re playing this on national radio btw,\u201d wrote the ZM account on TikTok. \u201cWAIT A MINUTE!\u201d wrote impressed fellow musician Joe Jonas. \u201cMaybe the concept of Hannah Montana isn\u2019t too hard to believe,\u201d wrote another fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like Hannah Montana herself, KJ Apa has made his own musical aspirations clear in the past. In 2018, he shredded onstage with The Steadies<\/a>. In this \u201810 Thing I Can\u2019t Live Without\u2019 video from 2020, he said \u201cI can\u2019t live without a guitar \u2013 I\u2019ve been playing since I was 11 years old.\u201d Just a year later, under his real name, Apa independently released his debut indie folk album Clocks. \u201cMusic has always been at the forefront for me,\u201d he told Ryan Seacrest following the release<\/a>. \u201cI just did it without any expectations, just to release it from myself.\u201d<\/p>\n So Mr Fantasy could well just be a musical alter ego, putting Apa up there with Beyonce\u2019s Sacha Fierce or David Bowie\u2019s Ziggy Stardust. It could also be a long con promotion for\u2026 something? Invisalign? Guinness? A project with James Franco? The pair certainly seem to know each other very well indeed. In this interview<\/a> with Franco for V Magazine, Apa revealed that he texted Franco at a low point in his life, and Franco set him on the road to recovery. The interview ends with Franco saying \u201cI love you, buddy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Could Apa and Franco\u2019s love be so pure that it can only be fully expressed by way of a musical comedy character? Alas, Franco has been pretty quiet on the filmmaking front<\/a> for a while now, and the only music-adjacent role Apa appears to have on the horizon is playing Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell in an upcoming biopic<\/a>. \u2018Santeria\u2019 is quite a leap from Mr Fantasy\u2019s work-in-progress \u2018Hot Diploma\u2019, but it is not impossible. I\u2019m still privately holding out hope Fantasy has something to do with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, out this week in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whatever Apa is up to, it\u2019s working. Hundreds of thousands of people are hooked on the developments in Mr Fantasy\u2019s career, whether it is him riding a \u201clemon\u201d scooter to his manager John\u2019s house, or organising a fan edit of people dancing to his single. All the while, he\u2019s still dropping errant capitals, tongue forward emojis and sexual non-sequiturs: \u201cJohn is currently editing our fan video compilation of \u2018Mr. Fantasy\u2019and it\u2019s looking AMAZING I FEAR NONE OF YOU ARE READY. \ud83e\udd2a exciting news on all fronts coming soon lick it suck it kiss it YES !\u201d<\/p>\n Time will reveal the truth of Mr Fantasy, but for now let us enjoy Apa throwing himself into his meatiest role yet. Sure, Kane on Shortland Street had his struggles, but did he ever throw a frisbee so hard it caught on fire and flew past a surprised moon? Sure, Archie on Riverdale belted a few tunes in his time<\/a>, but did he ever sing \u201cyou wanna get a hot diploma\u201d followed by several chimp noises? Mr Fantasy might be a deeply weird guy, but at least he\u2019s got a good heart in a cruel world. \u201cI want you to remember one thing: be yourself,\u201d he once said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or, as Apa has proved: if you can\u2019t be yourself, you can always be Mr Fantasy.\u00a0<\/p>\nMr Fantasy and KJ Apa, side by side.<\/p>\n
The many outings of Mr Fantasy<\/p>\n
Mr Fantasy has eyes for one man only<\/p>\n