WONDER MAN Will Be A Marvel Spotlight Series; MCU Exec Details New Approach To "Marvel Television"

WONDER MAN Will Be A Marvel Spotlight Series; MCU Exec Details New Approach To "Marvel Television"

It's been confirmed that Wonder Man will be a standalone Marvel Spotlight TV series, while MCU exec Brad Winderbaum elaborates on the decision to resurrect the "Marvel Television" banner for Disney+...

By JoshWilding - May 22, 2024 06:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Wonder Man
Source: Variety

With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Daniel Destin Cretton no longer attached to Avengers 5, he's been able to focus on Disney+'s upcoming Wonder Man series. 

While the show has never been "officially" announced by Marvel Studios, we have a new update from Variety. In a piece addressing the decision to bring back the "Marvel Television" label to better differentiate big and small screen stories, the trade confirms that Wonder Man will fall under the "Marvel Spotlight" banner Echo debuted with in January. 

That's meant for one-off, character-driven TV shows which can serve as standalone projects with fewer connections to the wider MCU. However, with Echo, that decision seems to have been made relatively last-minute seeing as it set the stage for Daredevil: Born Again

"There was a lot of pressure post-'Avengers: Endgame' on the public to feel obligated to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything," Brad Winderbaum, Marvel's head of streaming, television and animation, tells the site. "Part of the rebranding was a signal to the general audience that we’re creating a lot of options, and you can follow your tastes within this brand."

"Some will be more comedic, some will be more dramatic, some will be animated, some will be live-action. Marvel is more than just one thing - it is actually many different genres that just happened to coexist in a single narrative. The characters still live and breathe in the same universe, but the interconnectivity is not so rigid that you need to watch Project A to understand Project B."

He adds, "We were already, as of two years ago, adapting our process from being, you know, fill the service as fast as possible no matter what, to a more considered approach. I really like the idea of two shows a year, especially because we are developing more than we make."

"We used to treat the shows like the features where we’re gonna make a show and that’s it, we’re going to hit a release date, hell or high water. Well, it’s hard to do for a two hour feature, it’s even harder to do for, six, seven, eight, nine hours. So now we have a more traditional approach."

Wonder Man has enlisted Andrew Guest as Head Writer with Cretton helming the first two episodes. There had been rumours about the show being scrapped during last year's strikes; however, like Daredevil: Born Again, we believe the show has instead been creatively overhauled and improved.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will play Wonder Man, with Sir Ben Kingsley set to reprise his Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings role as Trevor Slattery. Last April, Demetrius Grosse was confirmed as The Grim Reaper, while quite a few A-Listers - including Ed Harris, Bob Odenkirk, and Courtney Cox - are rumoured to appear.

Wonder Man made his Marvel Comics debut in the pages of Avengers #9 in 1964. Initially a villain, he was later retconned and became a hero (and an Avenger) in the 1970s. The Grim Reaper is his brother, and his brainwaves were used by Ultron as a basis for The Vision; later, he joined the West Coast Avengers and became a Hollywood star. 

Wonder Man doesn't currently have a confirmed premiere date. 

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Matchesz
Matchesz - 5/22/2024, 6:32 AM
Exhausting
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/22/2024, 6:38 AM
So I consulted the Oracle of Delphi and I said "Oh lovely Oracle, what is the difference between a Marvel Spotlight series and a regular series and what's the difference between Marvel Studios television and Marvel Television?"

She did a flippety-[frick]ity dance like Zack Snyder just gave her a palmful of molly and then she fell down drooling and whispered "There is no... difference... at all"

Next time I must remember to ask her what the difference is between a DC Black Label comic and a regular DC comic. I feel like I might get the same answer though.
JDL
JDL - 5/22/2024, 6:44 AM
@ObserverIO - I thought the difference was a separation of content along the lines of AoS. Nothing much leading to a movie but movie events can at least be mentioned.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/22/2024, 9:31 AM
@JDL - Isn't that pretty much most Disney+ Marvel content?

DS-MoM can exist without WandaVision (in fact it kind of makes WandVision redundant) and I'll bet that everything we need to know about the TVA will be expository in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Also, Jarvis from Agent Carter appeared in Avengers: Endgame and Matt Murdock from the Netflix shows appeared in NWH.

Not much has changed.

The only outlier would be The Marvels' dependence upon WandaVision and Ms Marvel (and a little bit of Hawkeye at the end, but that's an end credits scene so it's not disruptive to the whole).

The Marvels didn't work because of this. But the other examples did because you didn't need to watch the shows they referenced to understand what was going on, but you kinda did need to watch Ms Marvel and WandaVision to understand The Marvels.

Things like multiversal cameos are more acceptable because there is a distance there. There's the division of the 'Other world' and anything can come from another world. So cameos in D&W, A5 and Secert Wras should be fine.
But The Marvels just did not work and was a failed experiment.

Hopefully they don't repeat the same mistake with Young Avengers. It should be a streaming show not a movie.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/22/2024, 9:33 AM
And also, Young Avengers can and should set up A5 without being required viewing.
JDL
JDL - 5/22/2024, 10:24 AM
@ObserverIO - Imo the idea was to pre-sell some one new more than some thing (as in story). Anyway it didn't work.

The first time I watched the Marvels I moderately enjoyed it. The second time I paid more attention. It was badly written even without considering the villain and heroes seemed to be cast mainly to appeal to a female audience who, surpise ! avoided it like the plague.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/22/2024, 2:35 PM
@JDL - I gotta admit I've yet to see it a second time. I've been anticipating liking it more, but to hear you say you liked it even less does not sound promising. It'll probably be a while before I ever see it again. Maybe when I binge The Multiverse Saga at the end of Phase Six.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/23/2024, 1:51 AM
@ObserverIO - if youre making a Oedipus reference here....based. if it's Percy Jackson or something ....less so.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/23/2024, 4:19 AM
@McMurdo - lol, yeah I was going more for ancient greek than YA fiction.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 5/23/2024, 5:02 PM
@ObserverIO - lol can dig
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 6:42 AM
I never even heard of Wonder Man.
Besides the obvious gender difference, what's the difference between him and Wonder Woman?
Vigor
Vigor - 5/22/2024, 7:24 AM
@lazlodaytona - one is a Hollywood actor and the other an Amazonian. Haha that's it.

Truthfully they're gonna have to really create a compelling reason for me to care about wonder man. I think the catch is that thus is a satirical tale of Hollywood culture, and less about his feats as a superhero. To that end, I found the concept of Echo more compelling. I just wish they stuck with Echos original powers
mountainman
mountainman - 5/22/2024, 7:48 AM
@lazlodaytona - He was in the ‘B squad’ West Coast Avengers originally. Very powerful guy, more comedic character, best friend with X-Men’s Beast.

It seemed like they were approaching this as more of a mockumentary style show set in Hollywood.
Radders
Radders - 5/22/2024, 9:07 AM
@lazlodaytona - First appeared in 1964, He was created by Zemo to destroy the Avengers but turned on him and Zemo killed him. He slowly came back to life though various different means until he was fully revived and joined the Avengers, often using the phrase "my fists hit like Thor's hammer" Unfortunately his death played heavily on him and he had to constantly fight against his fear.
During that time it was discovered he was no longer exactly human but filled with Ionic energy. He was best friends with The Beast and started trying to be an actor. There's a strange relationship between him and Wanda, as Vision was programmed based on his brain waves and also had a relationship with Ms Marvel/Carol Danvers. He died again only to be revived by Wanda in an ionic energy form and he's kind of floated around ever since.

He was one of my my favourite characters growing up, but honestly, you don't need to know all that, apart from the actor part they're ignoring it, including what the character looks like
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 9:27 AM
@Vigor - so Wonder Man is more like Booster Gold than W.W?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 9:29 AM
@mountainman - so I posted before, he's more like Booster Gold?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 9:31 AM
@Radders - no. I did need to know all that and I truly appreciate u sharing.
Makes me very much wanna watch this now.
mountainman
mountainman - 5/22/2024, 9:31 AM
@lazlodaytona - Personality wise they are somewhat similar but Wonder Man isn’t a time traveler and their power sets are not the same. But I can see the comparisons.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 5/22/2024, 9:32 AM
@lazlodaytona -
None whatsoever. Direct rip off. Strangely enough they both have a love interest named Steve Trevor.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 9:37 AM
@mountainman - oh. Sorry I didn't hit that correct. Was just trying to find a DC comparison (I am a DC guy but love what marvel has been doing in their film universe).
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 9:38 AM
@Goldboink - direct rip-off of what?
mountainman
mountainman - 5/22/2024, 9:41 AM
@lazlodaytona - I’m less familiar with DC, but Booster Gold is likely the closest comparison.

Wonder Man has a bigger power set (to my knowledge) and isn’t from the future. But both are actors and generally more light hearted characters, although Wonder Man has gotten pretty dark at times, used to be a villain, has a villain for a brother (Grim Reaper) and (really long story) is tied to The Vision’s origin in the comics.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 5/22/2024, 9:43 AM
@lazlodaytona - wonderman has alot of backstory that can fit into the narrative of the mcu. he dated wanda and was part of vision, wanda love triangle. vision in the comics actually has his origin tied around wonderman due to ultron using wonderman as a template to create vision. he was best buds with hank mccoy from the xmen. he can be a damn good piece of he MCU if they do it quality and love of the source material.
WarMonkey
WarMonkey - 5/22/2024, 10:30 AM
@lazlodaytona - "so Wonder Man is more like Booster Gold than W.W?"

I'm not a Wonder Man expert but I would say just think of Johnny Cage and give him super strength, the power of flight, and have him punch instead of kick and that's Wonder Man.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 5/22/2024, 10:34 AM
@lazlodaytona -
It was a joke, but I guess the context of who Wonder Man actually is makes the joke funny.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 10:50 AM
@mountainman - I appreciate the info man. Thank u
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 10:52 AM
@supermanrex - well, I'm looking forward to seeing him and hope he's not just a side show on D+
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 10:54 AM
@WarMonkey - 🤔 that makes sense
supermanrex
supermanrex - 5/22/2024, 1:24 PM
@lazlodaytona - i hope he has gravitas to his show. cause it would be tragic if they turned it all slapstick and stupid. i love mcu comedy but i think they can leave the over the top slapstick shit behind unless its deadpool who is made for that shit and makes it gory and cool.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 5/22/2024, 1:28 PM
@supermanrex - absolutely
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 5/22/2024, 6:55 AM
The "quality over quantity" scapegoat is a thing of the Marvel bossess' imagination. They will continue to saturate the brand with low quality output imo.

Ill just stick with my "let's wait and see" approach
Matchesz
Matchesz - 5/22/2024, 8:34 AM
@vectorsigma - disney marvel is full of wannabe politicians, they say whatever they think the fans want to hear then continue doing what they do
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 5/22/2024, 12:20 PM
@Matchesz - right on. And the sad thing is, a lot still will believe the BS
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/22/2024, 6:56 AM
User Comment Image

Sounds good to me!!.

However I will say that this was more or less the case anyway post-EG but I’m glad they have made it more “official” to help the audience understand.

You never needed to watch the shows to understand the movies or vice versa , if you did then it would certainly enrich your experience but you could still enjoy something like The Marvels without having seen WV or Ms Marvel imo.
LSHF
LSHF - 5/22/2024, 7:12 AM
I hope his message gets out (somehow) to everyone that needs to hear it.

It would be really cool to see Ed Harris and Bob Odenkirk in the MCU.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/22/2024, 7:14 AM
Whatever clever. Just give me more shows
bobevanz
bobevanz - 5/22/2024, 7:15 AM
Double dip much? We've already heard what the TV clown said
BobbyDrake
BobbyDrake - 5/22/2024, 7:30 AM
This new Quantity over Quality approach is really gonna pay off for them!!!
dragon316
dragon316 - 5/22/2024, 8:19 AM
Wasn’t this cancelled?
marvel72
marvel72 - 5/22/2024, 8:22 AM
@dragon316 - It should be.
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