Wonder Man is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) love letter to Hollywood.
Wonder Man (2026), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Disney+ series focuses less on action and more on Hollywood, examining what living in a world with superheroes might be like from the perspective of a struggling actor. However, this actor just so happens to have supernatural powers. Wonder Man puts action on the back burner and focuses on storytelling—focusing on the narrative prowess the MCU first exhibited with Iron Man (2008).
The MCU is a universe that connects characters across films produced by Marvel Studios. Pop culture’s obsession with superheroesfelt inescapable during the late 2010s; this obsession peaked around the release of Avengers: Endgame (2019), the final film in the saga’s third phase. Since then, the MCU has struggled to match its past success, with a string of movies and TV shows that haven’t performed nearly as well as the ones pre-pandemic.
Focusing on Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Simon Williams, a struggling actor who lands the role of his dreams but, because of his superhuman powers has to work around the “Doorman Clause,” a clause preventing superpowered people from acting, while being carefully watched by Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery, hired by the in-universe “Department of Damage Control” that tries to negate the damage caused by super heroes while they’re busy saving the world. We finally see Kinglsey’s Slattery fleshed out as a character after playing an ultimately irrelevant role in both Shang Chi (2021) and Iron Man 3 (2013).
Despite having Kingsley’s character in the show, Wonder Man distances itself from the MCU while still clearly being a part of it. If you’d never watched the MCU, you might still be able to enjoy this show for what it is, beyond it: the story of a struggling actor who just so happens to have supernatural powers as he tries to play a superhero in a film.
The show highlighted the issue that was plaguing the MCU’s TV shows; outcomes from these shows bled into the films the universe was releasing. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan from Miss Marvel was a key player in The Marvels, but fans who were only familiar with the films wouldn’t know or care about that character, despite being expected to know six episodes’ worth of information about her.
To fans, the TV shows felt like required readings for the lecture that was the Marvel film. And while you absolutely should do your readings, fans who’d used the cinematic universe as an escape from their busy lives wound up feeling isolated.
Wonder Man has been well-received because it remains detached from the MCU, despite having a superpowered character and, primarily, characters with no relevance to the real plot of the Universe’s lore. This allows fans to just turn the show on, watch it, and leave without needing hours’ worth of information to keep track of what’s going on.
The MCU has achieved through Wonder Man something they haven’t done in a long time—tell a great story.
Tags
cinema, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, superheroes, Television, Wonder Man
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