Wonder Man: Season 1

Legislation has barred people with special powers from working in Hollywood, a rule enforced by the Department of Damage Control. When they suspect that up-and-coming actor Simon Williams has secret powers, they recruit ex-Mandarin actor Trevor Slattery to befriend him and learn the truth. Slattery is at first keen to help in return for money and his freedom, but as he gets to know Williams and sees things in him that remind him of his own career at a younger age, Slattery starts to have second thoughts.

It's probably fair to say that the Marvel TV explosion of the early 2020s did not pan out as hoped. Whilst we did get several good shows - WandaVision and Loki were the highlights - and several okay ones (like Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk), we also got Secret Invasion, easily the weakest project the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe has delivered to date. Marvel made the decision to pivot back to the big screen, leaving the fate of Wonder Man, filmed back in 2023, unclear. Eventually Disney put it out in early 2026 with relatively little fanfare.

Almost predictably, the show ends up being superb. The series is focused on the relationship between Simon Williams, played with gravity, presence and humour by the talented  Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Slattery, played with sly irreverence and occasional tragic pathos by Ben Kingsley. Producer-showrunner-director Destin Daniel Cretton, who made this shortly before starting work on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, was inspired to make the movie after shooting Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and realising that Marvel had an untapped powerhouse in its hands with Ben Kingsley, one of our greatest living actors.

The eight-part series opens almost as a standard drama, with Williams trying to make it as an actor. He's gotten as far as having mid-ranking recurring roles on TV dramas, but his obsession with making each character have integrity is grating on time-minded directors. Williams's family is also divided on his ambition, his mother being supported but his brother, a successful businessman, is frustrated at his lack of ambition and progress. This is all quite compelling thanks to some good writing and outstanding performances. The arrival of Slattery and the references to his past as the Mandarin (from Iron Man 3) ties events into the wider MCU, but it's done with a relatively light touch. A Damage Control agent recurs from Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms. Marvel, but there are almost no references to his previous escapades, so newcomers need not be put off.

Because the show works so well as a serious drama with bursts of comic fun (including a great interlude with Joe Pantoliano playing an unhinged version of himself), the fear is that its further integration into the MCU and exploration of Williams's powers will dilute the premise. But the show does a good job of using those elements to explore Williams' character, as well as giving Kingsley more meat to chew on. Kingsley's charcter has mostly been used so far in the MCU for comic relief, but Wonder Man gives him much more range and, obviously, the actor rises to the occasion. The eight episodes are perhaps a little too much for the story on offer here, but this is offset by the fourth episode Doorman, an effectively self-contained mini-movie explaining why Hollywood has barred superhero actors. More wildly inventive in its hour-long runtime than most of the last dozen Marvel movies, the episode is a terrific, fun time as well as providing much-need exposition.

But ultimately the show is about the relationship and friendship that builds between Williams and Slattery (somewhere between mentor-student, father-son and bromance), and how that factors into their life choices. The show builds up an impressive emotional weight missing from too many recent MCU projects. In short, it makes you care about the characters, an important rule of scripting that too many modern projects have forgotten.

The show does falter a little. Even with the excellent flashback diversion, the story isn't enough to completely fill the runtime, and the low-key, low-stakes nature of the story may not appeal to everyone. But others will enjoy what is possibly the best look we've had so far at what living in the MCU is like for ordinary people, and for people with powers but who aren't the Hulk or Spider-Man.

Thoughtful and witty in turn, Wonder Man (****½) is one of the best slices of the MCU on the small screen with outstanding performances by its two leads. It is available to watch worldwide now on Disney+.

The show was renewed for a second season a few months ago, but this decision was abruptly reversed a few weeks ago. However, given that Cretton has just delivered Marvel the highest-grossing opening movie of all time, maybe he can convince them to change their minds again.

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