Simon Williams is an iconic Avenger with a complicated history that includes an acting career, a stint as a villain, and an android—The Vision—who shares his brain patterns.
Marvel Television's upcoming Wonder Man TV series is expected to follow Simon's transformation from Hollywood star to superhero, with Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Trevor Slattery confirmed to appear.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays the MCU's Wonder Man, though we still don't know what plans there are, if any, for the character beyond this series.
There have been conflicting reports about whether Wonder Man will be a standalone "Marvel Spotlight" series, and scooper Daniel Richtman has learned that it will still feature that branding. This puts it in the same category as Echo, a show that came and went with little fanfare and has largely been forgotten (we recently learned that plans for Maya Lopez to appear in Daredevil: Born Again were scrapped).
While this doesn't necessarily mean we won't see Simon beyond Wonder Man, the implication seems to be that it's planned as a one-off tale exploring a different side of the MCU, rather than the introduction of a superhero who's set to enter the fray in Avengers: Doomsday.
It was recently reported that Wonder Man will be relatively standalone with no cameos, so this shouldn't come as a huge surprise.
One link to the wider MCU will be the presence of Arian Moayed, who portrays Department of Damage Control agent P. Clearly. "This show is a love letter to acting and the craft and the hard work of being an artist," he recently teased. "It taps into something very, very unique and special and working with...I can't even say who I worked with."
Last year, we caught up with Grim Reaper actor Demetrius Grosse to discuss his role in Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot and asked if there was anything he could tease about his MCU debut.
"Yes, and I think people are going to be intrigued by the dynamic between Simon Williams and Eric Williams as much as they’re excited about the dynamic between Grim Reaper and Wonder Man," the actor told us. "This series is gonna be a very, very different kind of show, but pleasantly so."
Andrew Guest (Hawkeye) series as Wonder Man's Head Writer. The series is executive-produced by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton. He also helmed the first two episodes.
Wonder Man premieres on Disney+ this December.