While keeping details firmly under wraps, Wonder Man producer Stephen Broussard assures Marvel fans the show will not be your run-of-the-mill superhero story.
Speaking to Comicbook, Broussard said the series will be "definitely influenced by the comics," promising "it's going to feel very unique." He acknowledged that "serialized storytelling is a totally different muscle" from feature film storytelling and alluded that there is greater creative freedom to doing a Disney+ show than to making a theatrical movie, adding: "So, we're having a blast making that one."
The character Wonder Man is credited to Stan Lee and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. He was first introduced as a supervillain fighting the Avengers in 1964 but later turned to the side of the heroes and joined the team. His alter ego Simon Williams originally owned a munitions factory unsuccessfully competing with Tony Stark's operation. He gained his various superpowers through chemical and radiation treatments with "ionic" energy.
Wonder Man's Loaded Cast
Neither the new show's star, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. nor its director, Destin Daniel Creed, is a stranger to the superhero genre. The latter directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and is tapped to helm Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, expected in theaters in 2025. As for Abdul-Mateen II, the actor has been a big fish in DC's cinematic pond, playing the Black Manta in Aquaman and its upcoming sequel. Wonder Man was first announced in June 2022 and is expected to start shooting in March. While no photos or official artwork have been revealed, one piece of fan art imagines what Abdul-Mateen II would look like in his classic costume from the comics.
Marvel has a short but prolific history of rolling out 'unique' shows, those that defy genre expectations and conventions, on Disney+, starting with WandaVision in 2021. The miniseries externalized the main character's internal trauma in the form of TV shows within the series before resorting to more conventional superhero storytelling for the finale. Moon Knight found different but equally unique ways of showcasing its protagonist's dissociative identity disorder. Hawkeye created something new by mixing old-fashioned superhero action with even more old-fashioned Christmas movie tropes. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law satirized its genre and medium by habitually breaking the fourth wall and adding sitcom and courtroom drama elements to the mix. The Wonder Man series has been reported to take a satirical look at Hollywood.
Wonder Man does not have a release date yet but it will be exclusive to Disney+.
Source: Comicbook