It seems that the Marvel machine is heading to… Hollywood? According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios is developing a Wonder Man series for Disney+.
It’s a part of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton’s overall deal with Disney. The director will be working with Andrew Guest, a writer for comedies like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community. Cretton will executive producer and potentially direct an episode of two of the series.
Who is Wonder Man? He’s not a Marvel take on DC’s Wonder Woman or anything. Instead, the character is Simon Williams, a character who appeared very early in the original Avengers series as a villain and dies in his debut issue. His brain patterns are saved by Hank Pym and used to create Vision in the comics, heavily tying Simon to both the Vision and his love interest, the Scarlet Witch.
It wasn’t until his return that Wonder Man settled into his “classic” persona. This status quo sees Simon as a powerful being made of ionic energy, making him very strong and nearly invulnerable. Despite being a founding member of the West Coast Avengers, he moonlights as an actor and stunt man in Hollywood, as opposed to being focused wholly on being a hero Wonder Man also strikes up a long-time friendship with the Beast, who did a stint on the Avengers after a long time as an X-Man.
Over his history as an Avengers supporting cast member, Wonder Man has been villain, hero, actor, villain again, and hero once more. He’s had a romance with the Scarlet Witch, partially because he was the guy Vision was based on. This led to an interesting love triangle between the three, something that could factor into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Simon also romanced Carol Danvers during her Ms. Marvel era.
As a series though? Given the character and the writer, I’d expect something like Entourage with superheroes. Leaning far more toward Wonder Man being an invincible hero who’s also trying to make it as an actor. A wholly comedic version of this appeared in the first season of MODOK on Hulu, voiced by Nathan Fillion.
The Hollywood Reporter says that the series could start filming in 2023, meaning it would come to Disney+ potentially in 2024.
