What a delightfully strange time.
Originally, I wasn’t going to write a review about Wonder Man. After Marvel put such little stock into it’s marketing, and it’s decision to drop it all at once rather than it’s typical weekly release, Marvel Television very much gave the impression that they had little faith in this project. Well after deciding to chuck on an episode on Saturday night (I was waiting for more of The Pitt to release) I found myself drawn to the simplicity of the story and the character driven drama that was on offer.
Marvel appears to have found its consistent footing again. In 2025 it released Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Daredevil: Born Again and Iron Heart. Despite Captain America: Brave New World being less than memorable, it seems Marvel is genuinely back on track with it’s ratio of good vs bad projects and I’m here to share that it’s shows like Wonder Man and how it attempts to change the formula is how Marvel will stay on top.
Let’s take a quick second to explain the premise of the show and you can tell me if that sounds like your usual Marvel series or not. If you’re looking for Wonder Man, a new iconic hero to parade around the world stopping bad guys and kicking butt with his plucky side kick then I’ve bad news, this is far from that. Wonder Man, the show, is about Simon Williams, an actor trying to land his dream job, the lead role in a reboot of a superhero movie franchise called Wonder Man. Simon however ends up under the wing of actor/former terrorist, Trevor Slattery, to help guide him into the leading role.
Wonder Man embraces a healthy change for Marvel that it has adapted in recent projects. The ability to exist completely without having to watch or know of any other Marvel show or movie. It is also a show that is very much NOT a superhero show, despite its main character having powers. Why Wonder Man is so encapsulating is that it very much a display of what it feels like to live in the MCU as an ordinary human being surrounded by gods, monsters and magicians. Similar to the first season of Daredevil, the show shrinks in scale and is very much a character study of people who live in a world where people with abilities live in a world with ordinary humans and it’s just considered the norm.
Without getting too much into spoilers, Wonder Man thrives on it’s core relationship between Simon Williams, an aspiring down on his luck actor, and Trevor Slattery, an experienced actor who made some catastrophic career choices along the way. The dynamic between Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley is electric and their honest friendship/mentor-mentee carries the entire show. I spent the entire 8-episode series genuinely worried about how their friendship might crumble under external forces and how I yearned for them to not break each other.
The show feels closer to trying to emulate an arthouse character study film. Similar in feeling to that of The Studio or Whiplash than other projects from Marvel Television. It comes from the director of Shang-Chi, Destin Daniel Cretton, who as of the time of writing this is now working on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Why Marvel appeared to seem to lack faith in this project is baffling to me. Perhaps it could be due to how off-colour it might be to what they have done in previous years? Regardless, Wonder Man succeeds because of how radically different it feels from what’s come before. But if you haven’t yet seen Wonder Man and are a lover of the MCU or dramedy’s then this is absolutely worth checking out.
You can watch all eight episodes of Wonder Man on Disney+ now.
