Summary
- The MCU Wonder Man series set to premiere on Disney Plus with a unique Hollywood superhero twist and 10 episodes in the first season.
- The cast includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams/Wonder Man and Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery returning to the MCU.
- The show is part of the Marvel Spotlight banner, suggesting a more character-focused, grounded story, potentially kept more separate from the main MCU storyline.
Marvel Studios’ upcoming Wonder Man series, which will bring the titular superhero into the sprawling ensemble of the MCU, has an announced cast, a plot summary, and a few other details to share. Produced by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton, Wonder Man is set to premiere on Disney Plus with a first season consisting of 10 episodes. Also, Wonder Man’s vanity, dark backstory, and place in show business will make him stand out among the other Marvel superheroes in the franchise.
Wonder Man, whose real name is Simon Williams, debuted in the pages of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, initially as an ionic-powered supervillain who went toe-to-toe with the Avengers. Wonder Man was eventually reborn as a hero and joined the team he used to fight. Unlike most superheroes, Wonder Man is much more focused on his image than on fighting crime. He moved to Hollywood, where his fellow Avenger Hercules helped set him up with a career as a super-powered stuntman. With its movie industry setting and self-obsessed superhero, the Wonder Man series has the potential to be a unique MCU story.
Wonder Man Latest News
In April 2024, a report from The Hollywood Reporter announced that filming for Wonder Man had concluded, with this news coming three months after the MCU project resuming production following the Writers Guild of America strikes were resolved. This comprises a five-month filming process overall for the show, with the process initially beginning in April 2023 until May 2023, and then being reportedly finished off after this three-month period that resumed in 2024, though it is worth noting that Deadline reported the series had been suspended due to strikes twice before its 2023 shutdown.
Other than this, the main news regarding Wonder Man is that it will be a part of the franchise’s Marvel Spotlight banner, as per a Deadline announcement in November 2023. Wonder Man being a part of the Spotlight banner means the project may have less ties to the MCU, as Spotlight releases are intended to be more individual projects, and also suggests the show will be a more grounded and character-focused story, given comments regarding the banner have suggested this is the aim with the releases within it.
However, it’s also worth noting that the MCU’s first Spotlight release, Echo, brought Kingpin back into the picture in a major way, suggesting Wonder Man could well follow suit with other notable figures and storylines regarding the franchise. Echo also managed to be 2024’s most-watched new show on Disney+ by May, which suggests hopeful things for Wonder Man’s potential incoming viewership.
The core news about the series is that it is product of Destin Daniel Cretton’s exclusive overall deal with Marvel Studios. Stella Meghie has also been tapped to direct a few episodes of the series, and James Ponsoldt as well as Tiffany Johnson are reportedly set to direct at least one episode (via ComicBook.com).
Meghie directed the films Everything, Everything and The Photograph as well as episodes of Grown-ish and Insecure. Ponsoldt is known for directing such movies as The Spectacular Now and The End of the Tour. Andrew Guest, who has been recruited as the show’s head writer, penned episodes of 30 Rock and Community and worked on Brooklyn Nine-Nine as a consulting producer. He also previously worked with Marvel Studios on Hawkeye.
Wonder Man Confirmed
The development of a Wonder Man series at Marvel Studios was initially announced in June 2022. When it was first reported that Destin Daniel Cretton was working on a Marvel series for Disney Plus, it was speculated to be a small-screen Shang-Chiand the Ten Rings spinoff possibly revolving around Xialing’s takeover of her father’s Ten Rings criminal organization. But it turned out to be an unrelated adaptation of the Wonder Man character — although his association with the Avengers could lead to a team-up with Shang-Chi later. With the creative direction of the series nailed down, and the cast lined up, it’s ready to go into production.
Wonder Man’s Release Date Is Currently Unknown
Marvel Studios has yet to announce a release date for the Wonder Man series. Showrunner Andrew Guest posted on his Writers Guild of America page that Wonder Man is scheduled to be released during the 2023-24 TV season, though this was before the WGA strikes, suggesting the anticipated window could now be later (via CBR).
Given filming is now reportedly concluded, a late 2024 Wonder Man release could still be possible. This is especially true given this would place it in line with previous Marvel shows released on Disney Plus, such as Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, were released about a year and a half after production began.
Wonder Man Cast
In the fall of 2022, Marvel Studios cast Yahya Abdul-Mateen II to play Wonder Man. This will mark the actor’s debut in the MCU. Abdul-Mateen is best known for playing Doctor Manhattan in HBO’s Watchmen series (for which he won an Emmy), Bobby Seale in Netflix’s courtroom-set historical drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, and a hybrid of Morpheus and Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections. His other TV roles include Omar in The Handmaid’s Tale and Karl in Black Mirror. Before being hired by Marvel, Abdul-Mateen had previously worked in the DCEU. He played the villainous Black Manta in Aquaman and its sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Wonder Man will also see some returning MCU actors. Ben Kingsley will appear in Wonder Man reprising his role as Trevor Slattery. Introduced as the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 before being unmasked as an impostor, Trevor is an actor who was reintroduced into the MCU in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He will reportedly play a “major role” in the story arc of Wonder Man. The fact that one of the MCU’s most prominent thespian characters has been cast in Wonder Man suggests its story will revolve around Simon Williams’ work in Hollywood. It could also point to an appearance by the Ten Rings criminal organization.
Demetrius Grosse and Ed Harris were confirmed to be a part of the Wonder Man cast in March 2023, and playing the role of Eric Williams and Neal Saroyan respectively. Both characters are set to have a major impact on the story at hand, with Eric being Simon’s brother and the Marvel villain known as the Grim Reaper in the comics, and Saroyan being both Williams’ agent and someone with mind control powers. Given Eric and Simon’s familial bond, it stands to reason that the show features both figures taking on their respective powers and aliases.
Lauren Glazier and Byron Bowers have also been announced as a part of the Wonder Man cast, with the July 2024 announcement of Bower’s casting also helping to confirm that the show is still in production following the MCU seemingly having made some course corrections in terms of its upcoming releases. Neither Glazier nor Bowers’ roles are currently known at this time, though the smaller nature of the known cast suggests their characters will similarly be integral to the story at hand. Josh Gad is also rumored to be a part of the MCU show, though this hasn’t yet been confirmed.
Wonder Man Story Details
Another one of Wonder Man‘s producers, Stephen Broussard, has said that the series will be “influenced by the comics.” He added, “It’s going to feel very unique. It’s not going to feel like anything you’ve quite seen in the MCU before.” Broussard said that “streaming, serialized storytelling is a totally different muscle” than three-act storytelling in a feature film. Some MCU shows have been one big story told in parts, like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, whereas others have followed a more traditional episodic format, like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Based on Broussard’s comments, it seems more likely that Wonder Man will fall into the latter category.
Simon Williams’ origin story turned him into a supervillain before he became a superhero, giving Marvel the chance to tell a redemption arc for a main character. Simon’s father’s company, Williams Innovations, lost profits due to competition from Stark Industries.
Williams accepted an offer from the villain Baron Zemo to turn him into an ion-powered being to fight the Avengers to exact revenge against Stark. If the Disney Plus Marvel series follows this part of the character’s origin story, he’ll be the latest in a long line of MCU characters to be motivated by resentment toward Tony Stark — following on from Obadiah Stane, Whiplash, Aldrich Killian, the Vulture, and Mysterio.
This angle would help to explain former Iron Man villain Trevor Slattery’s place in the show, though MCU Zemo actor Daniel Brühl is notably absent from the current casting list, suggesting this origin story could be set to experience tweaks going forward. That said, the show could also be a prime place to update audiences about Zemo’s story following his escape from incarceration in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Instead of charting Williams’ transition from villain to hero, the Wonder Man series might start off in the middle of his arc as a superhuman stuntman living in Hollywood. It could explore what the film industry in the MCU looks like. The movie industry has been touched upon briefly in the franchise with the in-flight movies seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Kingo’s three-generation Bollywood career in Eternals, but this is a chance to set an entire MCU story in Hollywood.
Wonder Man
Released on Disney+ as a limited series, Marvel Studios’ Wonder Man introduces the titular Avengers hero in the MCU. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the actor-turned-superhero Simon Williams, Wonder Man also features Ben Kingsley, who reprises his Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi role as the eccentric thespian Trevor Slattery.