In times past, Santa Claus has always been seen as a kindly man, a gentle soul who wants nothing more than to bring joy and happiness to billions of children around the world. In more recent times, however, we've started seeing something different. What started as a niche fantasy is becoming more of a reality. There's only really one way to describe the change in the Father Christmas landscape. We've entered the era of Hot Santa.

What began with Kurt Russell in Netflix's The Christmas Chronicles series, and progressed nicely to the bear of a man that is David Harbour in the currently-in-theaters Violent Night, we've now been gifted something unexpected, and not unwelcome. It's a buff AF J.K. Simmons as quite possibly the most meaty Saint Nick seen on the silver screen.

Always the hypeman, Dwayne Johnson has returned to Instagram to share some behind-the-scenes images from his upcoming holiday-themed film, Red One, and showed off photos of him spotting Simmons in the North Pole gym, as well as some perfectly positioned pics of Simmons flexing and posing for the camera. Truly, these are an early Christmas present for the thirsty Santaphiles on the world.

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Image via Hiram Garcia

RELATED: Dwayne Johnson Shares Behind-the-Scenes Photos from 'Red One'

Red One has previously been described as "a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre." Alongside Johnson, the film will also include the likes of Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Nick Kroll, Bonnie Hunt and Kiernan Shipka. Jake Kasdan, a favoured associate of Johnson, having helmed - to highly successful reviews, and massively impressive worldwide box office - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level, directs from a script written by Chris Morgan, who penned numerous movies from the Fast & Furious universe, including Hobbs & Shaw, to which Johnson has, of course, compared this movie.

The original idea for the movie came from Hiram Garcia, the President of Production at Seven Bucks Productions. Johnson will need to move on quickly to promoting Red One as, with the news of his desired sequel to Black Adam - set to feature the Man in Black taking on Henry Cavill's Superman - looking like it's dead before production could even begin, following the reported night of the long knives at DC Studios under James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Red One is set to launch on Prime Video during the 2023 holiday season. However, this ripped Santa might not come down the chimney but smash in the back door instead. Happy Holidays, indeed.

You can check out the photos below.