- - USA TODAY and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change.Meet Marvel's 'cool' new star in exclusive 'Wonder Man' peek

Brian Truitt, USA TODAYDecember 18, 2025 at 8:31 PM

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Marvel’s newest superhero wants to be Daniel Day-Lewis, not Captain America.

And in “Wonder Man” (streaming on Disney+ Jan. 27), the main character is so grounded, his costume is a denim jacket and jeans. Loosely inspired by a nearly 60-year-old comic character, the eight-episode action-comedy series puts a Marvel Cinematic Universe spin on the life of a working LA actor, from fateful auditions and on-set stress to real-life cameos that lend a meta nature to the show. USA TODAY has an exclusive debut of the first clip from the show.

Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is an aspiring movie star desperate for his big break, and when he learns that a legendary director is remaking his favorite sci-fi film from childhood, Simon figures it's destiny. He meets fellow thespian Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), who’s also up for a part in the high-profile production, but Simon secretly harbors extraordinary abilities that could derail his acting career before it really gets going.

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Simon Williams (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II, left) preps for an audition alongside Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley) in Marvel's "Wonder Man," streaming on Disney+ in January.

“We want to do a show that doesn't feel like anything else we've done,” says co-creator/head writer Andrew Guest, a former "Community" scribe and consulting producer on Marvel's "Hawkeye" series. He fancied doing a Hollywood story set in the MCU, but “Wonder Man” also needed to appeal to non-superhero fans, too.

One of the key challenges was establishing real stakes and viewer empathy without supervillains threatening mass destruction. “I want people to care about whether Simon gets a role,” Guest adds. “How do I get you to see it through Simon's eyes that this is life or death, a thing that to most people outside of the entertainment industry is like, ‘Oh, you didn't get the role you wanted? Who cares? You're not going hungry. You've got a place to live. What's the problem?’ But it matters that much to Simon, and I wanted the audience to feel the same.”

After playing the antagonist Black Manta in DC’s “Aquaman” movies and the preternaturally powerful Doctor Manhattan in HBO’s “Watchmen” TV series, Abdul-Mateen looked forward to dipping into the Marvel universe “as a guy who could have a sip of water,” he quips to USA TODAY. Simon hides his abilities in “Wonder Man” because powers are not exactly embraced in the MCU’s version of Hollywood, and the show also digs into his past, the relationship to his Haitian family, and a pressure to succeed.

“There’s an opportunity for some three-dimensionality, which is a treat as an actor, and then I get to do the superpower stuff every once in a while,” Abdul-Mateen says. “I get a little bit of the best of both worlds.”

“Wonder Man” is primarily a buddy series about Simon and Trevor’s blossoming bromance, and how they help each other. As MCU fans already know, Oscar winner Kingsley’s character is a frequent supporting player: In 2013's “Iron Man 3,” hired English actor Trevor “starred” in the role of international terrorist The Mandarin; Trevor reprised the part in the 2014 short film "All Hail the King", and last appeared alongside Simu Liu’s title character in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”

Trevor is “this bumbling, almost Forrest Gump-y, Chauncey Gardiner-type character who gets caught up in bigger-picture things,” Guest says. “This guy thinks he's done the hard work, thinks he's redeemed himself, but realizes in our series that he has not. He for the first time ever takes ownership over how his behavior has affected other people and decides to do something about it.”

“Wonder Man” delves into Trevor’s backstory as well. When he first played the character, Kingsley had Trevor's origins in his mind “but I didn't really share it extensively, because I don't want to burden my colleagues with my imaginative ramblings and how Trevor got to where he was,” Kingsley tells USA TODAY. Working with Guest and co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton, “it was so exciting to realize what was under the tip of the iceberg. The whole of Trevor's history poured out of me.”

For Abdul-Mateen, Trevor and Simon represent two different sides of being a professional actor: “Trevor's trying to re-create something, and Simon's trying to reach for something that's better than the last thing that he did.”

Simon Williams (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II) is the latest comic-book character introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Disney+'s "Wonder Man."

The series also visually pays homage to its main character’s comic-book roots. The movie that the young version of Abdul-Mateen’s Simon loves in the show features a Wonder Man outfit much like how he first appeared on the page as an Avengers supervillain in 1964. And Guest included other touchstones inspired by Simon’s “cool style” from the comics, including a 1980s vibe that throws back to Wonder Man’s heyday as a founding member of the West Coast Avengers.

While the MCU’s version isn’t that do-gooder yet, Abdul-Mateen feels “Wonder Man” takes him on a journey where he learns to be more heroic and honorable and less selfish.

"Who is this guy when he finally becomes a star?” Abdul-Mateen says. “That's the guy that people know from the comic books, who has the choice of whether to roll out of bed and go do his thing or to reluctantly use his powers to go do some superhero s---.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: See an exclusive look at Marvel's new superhero show 'Wonder Man'

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