In Hollywood, the most punishing stunt isn’t the wire work — it’s the audition. And with Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series “Wonder Man” positioning its hero as a working actor clawing for the part of his life, the latest preview leans into an industry satire where the cape is just another costume you have to beg someone to let you wear.
Set in Los Angeles, the eight-episode series follows aspiring actor Simon Williams (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as he struggles to get traction, then collides with Trevor Slattery (played by Ben Kingsley), the washed-up performer best known in-universe for pretending to be the Mandarin in “Iron Man 3” and his supporting role in “Shang Chi.” From there, the premise becomes a show-within-a-show scramble: a legendary filmmaker is remaking the superhero movie “Wonder Man,” and these two actors — at very different stages of their careers — chase roles that could change everything.
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Kingsley frames the project less like a standard MCU offshoot and more like a backstage comedy-drama about ambition and vanity. It’s “a journey of two guys in Hollywood that’s really entertaining,” he told EW earlier this year, and the series gets into the nuts and bolts: “We look at the casting process, we look at the auditioning process, we look at the directing process, the writing process.” He adds, “We look at the ego traps. We look at the seductive side of fame… in a very entertaining, non-judgmental way.”
The series also doubles as a deeper Trevor story, tracking him “before he got the role of Mandarin” and after — what Kingsley calls “a real biography… a biopic of Trevor.” But the comeback comes with barbs: Trevor bonds with Simon, yet “also sees Simon as someone he can absolutely exploit for his own ends,” Kingsley teased.
And the “Wonder Man” pitch seemed to be: yes, it knew the franchise rules — and it also wanted to poke at them. “We’re doing something that, tonally, feels much different than really any other Marvel show, or any other films,” Abdul-Mateen II said. “We’re doing something that’s fresh, and a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit self-aware.”
Backing them up was a cast that includes Arian Moayed, X Mayo, Zlatko Burić, Olivia Thirlby, Byron Bowers, Demetrius Grosse, Ed Harris, Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, and Joe Pantoliano, with the series initially directed by executive producer and co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang Chi”) and led by showrunner Andrew Guest. Additional filmmakers on the series include James Ponsoldt, Tiffany Johnson and Stella Meghie.
“Wonder Man” premieres January 27 on Disney+ with an eight-episode run. Watch the new trailer below.
#WonderMan, an 8-episode Marvel Television series, premieres January 27 at 6PM PT only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/hC2sgROWnE
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) January 1, 2026
