Wonder Man: Marvel pulls off a gentle series, but who will watch it?

Luca Fontana

30/1/2026

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Marvel wanted Wonder Man to be different – quieter, more personal and more sincere. The result is one of the studio’s best series in years. And probably also one that hardly anyone will watch.

Fear not, the following article contains zero spoilers. I won’t be revealing anything that hasn’t already been revealed in trailers. All episodes of Wonder Man are out on Disney+.

I didn’t really warm to any of the trailers for Wonder Man. They were all okay, I’d say. And Marvel’s often been just that lately. Okay. No more, no less. And then there’s the timing. Very recently, Seth Rogen’s The Studio gleefully dissected and celebrated Hollywood. No stone was left unturned, no one unscathed. Not Charlize Theron, nor Ron Howard. Not even legendary director Martin Scorsese was spared.

And here comes Wonder Man with a similar idea.

With all this going on, I was bracing myself for a mushy wannabe satire courtesy of Disney. Not least because the makers were trying to justify its existence ahead of the release; the trailer calling it a superhero series «for everyone who has superhero fatigue». To me, this all screamed meta without risk. Frankly, nobody wants that.

But hold it right there. Please don’t be as biased as I was. I promise Marvel hasn’t been this good in a long time. In fact, I’d say Wonder Man isn’t only one of the best things Marvel has ever produced, but also one of the most sincere – and that’s exactly why the series will struggle.

Same Tinseltown, different perspective

Perhaps the most important difference between The Studio and Wonder Man lies in its point of view. In Rogen’s loud and ham-fisted satire, the audience sees Hollywood’s inner workings at the top level. It’s all about studio bosses, producers and marketing departments digging their own grave with all their decision-making, postponements and calculations. Wonder Man, on the other hand, has chosen a quiet perspective from the lower ranks.

The main character is Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), an actor who’s hiding his superhero powers and has been trying to gain a foothold in Hollywood for years, but mostly without success. Simon isn’t failing because of a lack of talent, but because of himself. He overthinks even the simplest roles, asks too many questions and is perceived as difficult. Acting is more than a career to him. It’s his passion. His purpose in life.

His calling.

One day, luck finally seems to be on his side. When an unexpected opportunity suddenly arises, he also meets the notorious Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), an old pro in the industry. Trevor likes to point out that he was never a terrorist, but merely someone who once played one for a real terrorist. A mentor-student relationship quickly develops between the two, and doors open for Simon that previously seemed closed.

What he doesn’t know, however, is that this encounter wasn’t by pure chance...

Intimacy instead of a punchline

What holds Wonder Man together at its core isn’t the hilarious exaggeration of Hollywood you see in The Studio, and certainly not a superhero fantasy that would fit smoothly into the MCU. Instead, it’s the relationship between Simon and Trevor. A slowly growing friendship that takes careful steps without using irony as a protective shield.

Simon, in particular, is a character you immediately fall in love with. He treats Trevor with a mixture of admiration and childlike openness. Trevor, on the other hand, takes on the role of a paternal mentor with the experience of a man who knows the business. He shares insights, corrects and encourages his protégé. And it’s in the occasionally overly emotive conversations that the core of the series is revealed. Acting isn’t romanticised, but taken seriously as a craft that shapes people and sometimes wears them down.

The show has a beautiful emotional core. Not to mention the tension between every single line. Both characters are carrying a secret they’re not revealing. To the viewers, it’s obvious that this closeness is built on shaky foundations. At some point, something’s going to give and trust will be put to the test. In spite of this, or perhaps, because of it, this friendship feels real.

The fact that Wonder Man focusses so consistently on this relationship, despite the mocking poke, is probably its bravest move. One of these pokes is particularly well done. A director who looks like a caricature of Martin Scorsese wants to turn a Marvel superhero film – the genre that Scorsese once publicly dismissed – into «real» cinema.

Other than that, the series holds back when it comes to giving each scene a punchline like The Studio did. Instead, the series allows closeness to grow, because it trusts that this is enough. Who’d have guessed this would happen at Marvel?

The paradox

The real paradox of Wonder Man lies not in the series itself, but in its environment. Marvel got a lot of things right, of that I’m sure. The holding back, the focus on the characters, the refusal to turn every observation into a gag or a punchline. All of it feels deliberate. And that’s why Wonder Man is so sincere.

At the same time, this series is being unleashed in an environment that’s trained to respond to completely different reflexes. The Studio, for example, is a perfect fit for Apple TV. The series is loud because it kicks up. It can afford to be merciless because it’s shot on the executive floor. It makes fun of the absurdity of a system that’s defined by prestige, authorship and clear creative style, on the one hand, but is also brutal and money-driven.

Wonder Man, on the other hand, is about outsiders. This means non-stop punchlines would simply feel like mockery. Like kicking down at people who’re already struggling. Will this be a good fit for Disney+, a platform whose Marvel audience has learned to expect certain things over the years? Things like speed, spectacle, recognisability and connectivity?

And this is where things get interesting. Wonder Man will disappoint these expectations because it doesn’t pander to them in the first place. This puts the series between a rock and a hard place: for the classic Marvel audience, it may be too subdued and not clear enough. For people who value this kind of quietness, it may be in the wrong place and fall through the cracks.

That’s why I’m not concerned that Marvel has made the wrong decision, but that the wrong conclusions may be drawn from the reactions. If Wonder Man falls short of expectations in the streaming figures despite excellent reviews so far, this could easily be interpreted as evidence against it.

But that would be the wrong conclusion.

Patience as a business model – does it work?

These circumstances remind me a lot of Andor. Similarly, Disney+ introduced a series that radically strayed from what many associate with Star Wars. There was no fairytale structure, hardly any nostalgia, little fan service. Instead, there was politics, power mechanisms, fascism and resistance. A grown-up, uncomfortable Star Wars more interested in systems than heroes.

Numbers were being crunched early on with Andor. Would the series have enough viewers? Would ambition pay off? And would it make sense to give space to a franchise that wouldn’t be immediately rewarded? Fortunately, word of Andor got around over time and it was discovered, discussed and recommended. But this second wave of viewers wasn’t a given. The series had to work hard for it.

That’s why I hope Wonder Man doesn’t become the wrong kind of yardstick. It’s important not to jump to the conclusion that more demanding, quieter Marvel series won’t be watched. After all, this series proves that Marvel still knows how to do things differently. And it would be a crying shame if this sincerity of all things made decision-makers cling even more tightly to what is supposedly safe.

In any case, Andor has proven that patience is occasionally rewarded. It remains to be seen if that patience will be summoned.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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