The MCU tackles "superhero fatigue" head-on in new Wonder Man trailer

Few superheroes have been through it as much as Simon “Wonder Man” Williams. This is a guy who was killed off in his very first appearance, all the way back in 1964’s Avengers #9. It was later revealed his consciousness was stored in a computer, where it was used as the template for the Vision—who used those brain patterns to romance and marry the woman Williams loved. Oh, and his brother was a supervillain? Toss in your run-of-the-mill zombie revival, and the guy’s first decade was a bit of a mess. He was eventually revived as his normal self in time for the Me Generation peak of the ’70s, after which he became an actor and debuted one of his most significant impacts on the superhero canon: that sweet red jacket and sunglasses ensemble that cut the right look in every scenario, whether it was a battle with Korvac or a pool party at Robert Evans’ palacious Beverly Hills estate Woodland.

Along the way, Wonder Man also became sort of a joke to a lot of comic book readers—the kind of third-rate nobody whose presence held the Avengers down in the eyes of many. That’s a shame: his “superhero as struggling actor” bit was an interesting spin on superhero convention that opened up avenues of show biz satire (he’s front and center on the cover of the legendary Avengers issue where they go on Late Night With David Letterman), and the dynamic between him, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch was an example of superhero soap operatics that generally worked. Given his Hollywood connections and historic lack of seriousness as a character, he’s always seemed like a good match for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s taken 18 years since that whole shebang started for him to finally show up. The MCU version of the character debuts later this month in the Disney+ series Wonder Man, and a brand-new trailer shows that it’s heavily leaning into Williams’ acting side gig.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Simon Williams as a superpowered actor who has to hide his powers to get work in the industry. The mandatory connection to the broader MCU comes from Sir Ben Kingsley, who returns as the washed-up actor Trevor Slattery, whose last major gig was as the public face of terrorist the Mandarin. And Zlatko Burić (Triangle Of Sadness, Superman) plays the acclaimed director shooting a remake of Wonder Man—which was apparently a successful movie franchise within the MCU at some point when Williams was a kid. 

Superhero fatigue is real, of course; can a show implicitly about superhero fatigue revive the flagging MCU, or will its comedic tone just read as more of the MCU’s self-satisfied too-cleverness? And will this Wonder Man don the red jacket? (Of course—it’s right there in the trailer.) More importantly, how long before we get Abdul-Mateen’s Wonder Man in a buddy comedy with Kelsey Grammer’s Beast—who are canonically best friends within the comics? That’s the perfect way to finally introduce the X-Men fully into the MCU. Check out that new trailer below, and maybe go read a slew of ’70s and ’80s Avengers comics to get ready. You can never go wrong with the original West Coast Avengers series.

All episodes of Wonder Man debut on Disney+ on January 27.

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