Some Kind of WONDER’ful? Unlikely MCU series proves a Player…
Simon Williams is a struggling actor – enthusiastic, talented and committed – but a guy who has blown a lot of auditions by being too involved in finding his characters’ ‘motivations’, even if they only have a single line! But an apparently chance meeting with veteran, nay ‘infamous’, actor Trevor Slattery leads to a possible turning point in his career.
Legendary director Von Kovak is rebooting an old superhero franchise, Wonder Man, a franchise that Williams loved as a kid and now he will do anything to get a foot in the door of the casting department and Slattery offers to help. However Williams has a secret – he’s hiding a range of genuine super-powers that are banned by Hollywood productions and Slattery is also not being completely honest with his new protégé.
Someone is very interested in Simon Williams’ potential, but it has nothing to do with treading the boards…
*some spoilers*
Disney has had a mixed run of MCU-related fare ranging from the essential to the throwaway. Those tuning in to Wonder Man for the pure super-heroics often seen in the feature films could be disappointed by the lack of sheer wham-pow urgency on show and for first couple of episodes there’s little more than a few trembling tea-cups and cracked plaster to satisfy in that regard. However, from the very start, Wonder Man‘s remit is notably different, more satirical, more a love-letter to the industry and films like The Player than the Avengers. While firmly entrenched in a world where there’s the Rogers: The Musical still playing on Broadway, Wonder Man is a show that feels unapologetically pitched at an older and more nuanced audience.
Whilst many MCU/Disney+ series come in between the forty-five to full hour mark, running anywhere between six-to-ten episodes, Wonder Man‘s eight episodes all come in around the thirty-minute mark which, for the first time seems to be a case of suitable pacing (sure, there’s an argument it could have been trimmed to six, but it still holds the attention). It also helps in not having to lean into an obligatory slugfest set-piece to punctuate every few minutes. It’s more a case of “and… action!” rather than just an action-sequence for the sake of it. There’s comedy, but also real pathos.
Ultimately, it’s a showcase for its main stars and a nice change of pace – proof that Marvel can produce a lot of diverse things under its branded marquee when it has the right talent involved. It’s smart, savvy, wry and touching and deserves the early praise it has received…
The series follows erstwhile performers Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) an up-an-coming actor who can’t get out of his own way and Trevor Slattery (SIR Ben Kingsley), the veteran actor who is unfortunately known for his faux-Mandarin terrorist role and now fresh out of prison. We’re there through their first meeting, through their auditions and production of the in-universe Wonder Man project. Interweaving the story is the reluctant deal that Slattery has made with ‘Damage Control‘ (a more sinister version of the Marvel Comics‘ clear-up team) to monitor Simon and gather information about his abilities, in return for Slattery remaining out of prison for his past behaviour. As the thespians get closer to the success they want (and Damage Control secretly piles on the pressure) we find out what they’re willing to sacrifice to get it… and what they are not prepared to do. It’s a great laconic double-act between Slattery and Williams, with a camaraderie and chemistry that wonderfully ebbs and flows through the story.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, no stranger to comic-inspired fare with his role as Manta in both Aquaman movies and Cal Abar in HBO‘s Watchmen, certainly feels immediately at home in the skin of Simon Williams. He’s a character where you see plenty of fault-lines and foibles but still root for him to be the success he’s always wanted to be. We see the character as both an adult and child and the show captures that wonder of a child experiencing cinema for the first time. Whether Yahya’s would-be star is searching for character motivation or trying to contain his powers, there’s a sympathetic through-line. And above all, he sells the earnest half of what is essentially a welcome double-act of quality acting.
SIR Ben Kingsley, returning as Trevor Slattery, is a gem. Both he and the character have had some ups and downs within the MCU (first he appears to be the malevolent Mandarin, then revealed as a down-on-his-luck actor frontman for a terrorist plot against Tony Stark). Since then, Marvel have struggled to give him balance: Kingsley has deliberately had fun playing the character in very broad-strokes, but the result has sometimes left Slattery little more than a punchline, appearing as comic relief and treated as a washed-up performer with delusions of grandeur. Here, the writers and Kingsley make Slattery far more rounded. Yes, Slattery is still an askew eccentric when it comes to priorities and his obsession with the ‘arts’ (the two actors meet during a screening of Midnight Cowboy and bond with their informed admiration for the Dustin Hoffman / Jon Voight classic) but the off-hand remarks he makes about the theatre and movie profession are not throwaway quips – they are absolutely on the nose, full of genuine references and in-jokes if you know them… Pinter, Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud and a sly meta-reference to Kingsley’s genuine appearances in Coronation Street etc. For the first time there’s a really good mixture of rusted respect and sympathy for the thespian. Slattery may be past his prime, but now we know he definitely had one and earned it.
Supporting players include X Mayo as Simon’s agent Janelle, Arian Moayed as the manipulative DC Agent Cleary, Olivia Thirlby as Simon’s ex Vivian and Zlato Buric (last seen in Superman) as the enigmatic director Von Kovak. There’s also a scattering of real names in the mix: Joe Pantoliano appears as an exaggerated version of himself and seems happy to be the brunt of the joke – making Kingsley’s Slattery feel more credible as a fellow performer and Josh Gad (also as himself) appears in the flashback episode ‘Doorman’ featuring Byron Bowers as DeMarr Davis another empowered guy with a darker fate.
Wonder Man, once considered a project that would barely make a blip on the MCU radar and delayed from its planned 2025 release, won’t be a show for everyone. There’s an argument it’s a one-joke experience, but it’s a knowing, poignant, well-crafted one (especially in the way it embraces and skewers Hollywood – the industry and the physical landscape itself – and shows that you don’t need millions of dollars in post production pixel-decoration to tell a story). Ultimately, it’s a showcase for its main stars and a nice change of pace – proof that Marvel can produce a lot of diverse things under its branded marquee when it has the right talent involved. It’s smart, savvy, wry and touching and deserves the early praise it has received. Yes, it’s the antithesis of what makes a Doomsday or Infinity War film a must-see movie-theatre experience, but it benefits from not trying to be what it’s not. Less Wolverine and Deadpool, more Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Or at least dying for a chance to prove themselves.
There doesn’t seem to be any immediate plans for any kind of follow-up, but I, for one, would like to see if the wider MCU could find a corner for this particular dynamic duo.