Wonder Man ends with Simon Williams finally achieving his dream after landing the lead role in a reboot of "Wonder Man." However, Trevor Slattery had to reprise his most infamous role as The Mandarin to save his friend from the Department of Damage Control. As a result, he once again found himself behind bars.
Simon heads to the DODC Supermax prison and breaks Trevor out, and the series ends with the duo flying off into the distance together as a shocked Agent Cleary watches on.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with showrunner Andrew Guest, director Destin Daniel Cretton, and stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Sir Ben Kingsley about the finale, an alternate ending, and what it all means for these characters heading into a potential Wonder Man Season 2.
Cretton told the site that Simon breaking Trevor out of prison was, "emotionally...always the ending." However, it wasn't the only conclusion considered for Wonder Man, according to Guest.
"There was an alternate version where they performed in a black box theater together and levitated off the floor. That's true. But essentially we knew it was always about these two narcissists who, for the first time in their lives, put somebody else in front of their own needs. I believe it was Hamlet or something."
"Or no, there was a version of a play that Sir Ben's character Trevor had written that was not very good that he was going to be doing," Guest continued. "And then Simon kind of bails him out and makes it good."
Abdul-Mateen II and Kingsley were also asked for their thoughts, with the latter saying, "I thought it was delightful in that I've always felt Trevor had within him a kindness and also a regret for missed opportunity. And although he might have thought that his most accomplished gesture was on stage or on camera, in fact, his most consequential gesture was saving a friend, not on camera, not on stage, in real life."
"Likewise with Simon," Abdul-Mateen II added. "At the beginning, Simon was being selfish. And we end in a way where, in order to save a friend, to do something selfless, he embraces the thing that he was trying to hide that does potentially jeopardize his career. He flies and blasts through a roof and says, 'I'm going to do this for friendship. I'm not hiding anything, and actually I'm putting myself on the line to save this friendship.'"
Guest also shared some insights, pointing out that even after getting everything he wants in the finale as the star of "Wonder Man," Simon "still feels a little empty because he's not sharing it with this person who, throughout the course of the season, we realize means so much to him. He knows he needs to do something, that he won't be fulfilled and feeling okay with himself until he makes the sacrifice."
The stage is set for Simon and Trevor's stories to continue, and Abdul-Mateen II has a lot of thoughts on what his character's future could look like after the events of Wonder Man's finale.
"The other question that I think about when I think about the future of Simon is what happens when he gets a taste of what he wants? Simon's been wanting some of the stardom. I think he's been wanting this type of success for a long time, and then he gets it, and I want to see what that does to him."
"I want to see what getting a taste of what you've always wanted, what it does to a guy like Simon. I'm curious about that... But what I do love about Simon, which I realized today, is in the beginning we see him in the tiny [trailer] going over his script. And then toward the end, we see him in the big star wagon [trailer] and he's still going over his script. So that tells me that he's going to be all right."
All eight episodes of Wonder Man are now streaming on Disney+.