Wonder Man
2026
These days, all the cool kids are griping about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the in thing to do. I continue to enjoy almost all MCU offerings—which, given the breadth of genres they cover, is saying a lot. I abhor Deadpool and Wolverine like nature does a vacuum, and the Secret Invasion series was pretty bad (but featured an amazing Olivia Colman performance). Other than that…
Well, the latest MCU offering is here—”here” being on Disney+. A quick series of eight half-hour episodes, Wonder Man is easily digestible and requires no prior MCU knowledge (although you’ll miss some references and jokes without any). In fact, while the notion of superheroes is completely foundational to the show, it is also kind of irrelevant.
The show follows two actors in Hollywood: Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery (who has gone viral after being a one-joke Iron Man character) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Simon Williams. Slattery is a veteran actor haunted by bad choices from his past (which, in the MCU, means he took a job pretending to be an international terrorist, for which he was imprisoned), and Williams is a younger man who is on the verge of giving up on his career. They meet and form an incredible, heartwarming/heartwrenching buddy duo as they pursue roles in a superhero movie called Wonder Man.
Simon’s career could be taking off, but it is floundering due to his control issues and over-intellectual process. Slattery is Ben Kingsley, so, yeah, he can act (and watching him do so is one of the show’s great joys)…but who wants to hire a high-profile ex-con? Surprise: they help each other through their respective struggles, not through superpowers, but through a tender masculine friendship. It is such a lovely dynamic, and I wish the show were longer, giving us more time to hang out with the two.
Shall I speak about the role superpowers DO play in the show? There is a standalone episode halfway through the series that fills us in on the details (and is the absolute best use of Josh Gad yet), but I’ll boil it down to a factoid: people with superpowers cannot work in the entertainment industry due to astronomical insurance prices. Does Simon have superpowers? Of course. (Although, just as with his character in comic books, they are vague and confusing.)
Underneath all that—or, rather, over it—the show is simply a lovely tale of two differently-wounded men learning to lean on each other and redeem their pasts through positive action in the present. By all means, watch it, no matter what the cool kids may find wrong with it.