On Tuesday, Marvel Studios adds another iconic Avenger to the MCU's ranks when Wonder Man launches on Disney+. However, in case it wasn't already clear, this version of the character will differ a little from his comic book counterpart.
The MCU's Simon is a struggling actor, looking to land his big break in Hollywood by being cast in a reboot of "Wonder Man." In the comics, the character, introduced in 1964's Avengers #9, was given powers by Baron Zemo and forced to battle Earth's Mightiest Heroes. His brainwaves would later be used as the basis for The Vision.
We know that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Simon will have to hide what he's capable of after Hollywood has outlawed superpowered actors—and that the Department of Damage Control is hunting him down—but where did his iconic powers come from?
Well, it doesn't sound like we should expect a traditional origin story, as that's not the story Wonder Man's creative team set out to tell.
"When it came to Simon Williams, they gave me kind of free rein," showrunner Andrew Guest tells GamesRadar+. "There wasn't necessarily a run of Wonder Man that they wanted to look at. They wanted to make a show about the entertainment industry. And so for me, it was really figuring out Simon's relationship to Hollywood and his relationship to his superpowers."
Wonder Man does moonlight as an actor on the page, so it's not as if the Marvel Television series is diverging too much from the source material. By focusing on that in this series, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton was looking to tell a very different type of story.
"Truthfully, if you are going in to watch this show expecting a superhero show that is typically like something you've seen before, I think you will not like the show, if that's all you want," Cretton acknowledges. "But I also think you'll probably, if you watch it all the way through, surprisingly, fall in love with these characters and find that this show."
"Even though it's not a typical superhero show, to me, [it] uses the genre in a way that is so much more exciting and interesting than just watching two people fight," the Spider-Man: No Way Home helmer continued. "Seeing Simon's powers manifest in a way that helps you understand the pain that's inside there, that's buried inside there, and what his triggers are, as a person, I find to be incredibly relatable, and that, to me, is the exciting part of directing a show like this."
While the series establishes that Simon has had his powers since childhood, it doesn't feature an accident or inciting incident that left him one of the most powerful beings on Earth. Like Ms. Marvel and Namor, could he be another of the MCU's mutants?
"I don't know," the duo said in unison to that query, before Guest added with a smile, "It's a good question, though..."
It's as good an explanation as any, and Wonder Man offers a couple of big hints about Simon's past that we'll be taking a closer look at next week. In the meantime, be sure to check out our review of the series here.
All eight episodes of Wonder Man will stream exclusively on Disney+ at 6pm PT January 27.