Destin Daniel Cretton to produce Marvel’s Wonder Man series for Disney Plus
The Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings director returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Aux News Disney
Following the news last year that Destin Daniel Cretton would be making a Marvel series for Disney+, Variety has reported that the show will be about Wonder Man. Given the Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings director’s involvement, many fans had assumed that the story would be a spin-off about the master of kung fu’s sister Xialing, played by Meng’er Zhang.
The character of Wonder Man, also known as Simon Williams, dates back to 1964. In his comics origins, he gains superhuman strength and durability after being experimented on by Baron Zemo and is an antagonist to the Avengers before eventually joining them.
Zemo is portrayed by Daniel Brühl in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was introduced in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. When he was last seen in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, he was trying to eradicate the supersoldier serum, so it seems pretty unlikely that the source of Wonder Man’s powers will stay the same.
Wonder Man’s brain patterns were originally used to program Vision, who in live action was created by Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Ultron. A rebooted version of the android was introduced at the end of WandaVision, so it’s possible that the characters could end up connected down the line.
As Simon Williams, Wonder Man is also an actor and was at one point meant to make a cameo in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, played by Nathan Fillion. The Firefly actor went on to voice the character in Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K., though the stop motion animated series was not connected to the MCU.
Andrew Guest will be the head writer on the Wonder Man series, along with executing producing. He’s a veteran of shows including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community, and 30 Rock and has already worked with Marvel Studios as a consulting producer on Hawkeye. Cretton will also executive produce, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that he may direct at least one episode.
Cretton is currently filming an adaptation of Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese for Disney+, starring Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu. He has also been tapped to direct and write the sequel to Shang-Chi, though there has been no word as to when that’s expected to happen.
26 Comments
I mean, if anyone can make obscure characters work on screen, it’s the MCU.But still…Wonder Man? I could have sworn we hadn’t reached the bottom of the barrel yet.
I really love marvel and most of the mcu… but they really need to chill with these shows. Marvel officially peaked with endgame, and now they’re just flailing.
The fact that Marvel is 5 films and 6 tv shows into Phase 4 and we don’t really know what it’s building to, if it’s building to anything, is a problem.It’s fun for hardcore fans on message boards to fan wank, but, to a casual fan it seems like a problem. At least that’s my take.
I thought it was building to something with the multiverse since that’s been a prominent aspect in so many storylines since Spider-man far from home (the first post endgame movie) but they cheesed it so hard with Dr. Strange 2 and none of that stuff came to a head at all or was really even related in any way.
It feels like the multiverse is just going to be the key to everything going forward but they also seem to be setting up so many other things that it feels like it’s wearing thin. Like if this is really all about setting up Kang just to introduce Fantastic Four and X-men.It’ll make people happy but it’s not a payoff like Avengers 1 or Infinity War.
“Alternate universes” are, inevitably, used to justify not having to do anything consistent and coherent. That bit in that movie didn’t make sense? Doesn’t seem to be going anywhere? IT WAS IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, BABY!Since the whole point of the MCU is now basically a giant DAE – “DAE ‘member Toby Maguire Spiderman?” for example – and to throw up things fans have seen before in order for an instant dopamine hit rewarding them for studying the system (for which they’ll reward you by throwing money at the screen), the “multiverse” is perfect. You can reference any and everything without having to make sense or go anywhere.
What gets me is that each thing that has dealt with the Multiverse directly (Loki, No Way Home and Doctor Strange) each have a different reason for multiverse shenanigans and aren’t really related. I was expecting one event to cause the walls between world to weaken, or what have you, and that the other stories would spin out from that. As it is we have three separate reasons that are all pretty self-contained.
I think I heard that the release dates for No Way Home and Doctor Strange were flipped and presumably therefore rewritten, which might have something to do with it, but it’s all a bit aimless. Obviously it’s good that the films can stand alone and don’t all feed the larger story but the films (and some TV) seem to be vaguely themed around “multiverse” for no other reason than they decided that this is what this phase was going to be about.
That makes sense Dr. Strange got rewritten because it really didn’t make much sense. I was especially disappointed because the show runner from Loki wrote Dr. Strange so I unfortunately got my hopes up they were going to be connected
They revealed the title “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” quite a long time ago, years maybe? I am certain that they had no vision for the film at that time. I wager there was mild frustration while making it about the fact that they painted themselves into a corner like that.
Personally, I’m thinking do we actually need it to build to something? I’m kind of getting tired of every show or movie just feeling like a set up for the next one and the next one. Moon Knight was just fine without being connected to anything.
No and yes.No if these things were more stand alone. And the cameos were more cameos and not teasing a future show or movie.Without the big something, it’s just never ending fluff you can stop watching, like a comic. Maybe you come back when you hear they did something interesting, but, you lose the have to watch feeling. MCU is monetizing FOMO. If there’s no big thing, there’s no FOMO.
It’s fun for hardcore fans on message boards to fan wank, but, to a casual fan it seems like a problem. At least that’s my take.Best thing about Endgame is that I was finally done with MCU. But even before then, it was a slog. You can’t just watch an MCU movie. You must now watch every other MCU movie, the TV show, studiously study the back comics. It’s a system you must learn, which is why is appeals to…certain people. I am not one of those people.
And you feel alienated.
Why would I feel alienated by a bunch of white, male, American nerds? That’s pretty much the MCU’s target demo.
We were four years and six movies in before Thanos was even hinted at, and that was at the END of “Phase 1.” Just have fun at the movies, they’ll get there.
The Avengers United in that Phase 1 capstone. You know what the solo movies were building up to and you got it in 5 movies in 3 years.What is Phase 4 capstone event? Thanos culminated all 3 phases. But Phase 1 and 2 had there own capstone.What is Phase 4 building towards that will mark the turn from Phase 4 to Phase 5?And if that answer is, we don’t know we have to wait and see? That’s the point That’s being made.
Endgame was great but these shows have been pretty cool. I’ve seen them all.
Yeah, it’s an odd choice, but I think they’ll do it right. I had forgotten that Wonder Man was from so far back (1964) or the connection to Zemo; I remembered the whole Vision thing though.But… remember back in the comics when they teased for months (I think) Vision’s odd malfunctioning, which included a fear of water? Then they figured out that his body was the one used for the original Human Torch? (Pre-Fantastic Four -he was an android of course. Created by Phineas Horton.)And that android was on display at the expo Steve Rogers attends in Captain America: the First Avenger. No idea what they’ll be doing for the Wonder Man series, but the MCU has a decent sense of history…
It may seem an odd choice, but the hook of an actor/stuntman/superhero will probably work pretty well for tv. Also, his power set will be pretty easy to depict (super strength/invulnerability), though hopefully not any energy being stuff.
Make it The Fall Guy but with superpowers.
Oh man, maybe a backdoor to bring in Longshot as a space cadet stunt man. Let’s get weird!
Wonder Man could be a fun character. Especially if they go with the part of the character where he is an actor who is basically indestructible. Plus it means getting closer and closer to being able to do West Coast Avengers. Especially since Hank Pym already lives in California.Also when it comes to Baron Zemo, the one who created Wonder man is Heinrich. His son is Helmut Zemo which is the one they used for the MCU character.
Big-collared, red cargo jacket or I’m out.
Please, no more shows. Maybe a more cohesive idea about Phase 4 endgame should be developed? Maybe? Or is that just a lost cause now.I remember feeling slightly fatigued with Avengers after Ultron came out, then Ragnarok was all, hey, remember how much fun we’re going to have? Fond memories. Fewer shows and movies being thrown against the wall, and I felt like, just tell me how many movie tickets to buy and I’ll buy them!
I have a strong feeling that the next Ant-Man film will be the one to shed light on what the big culminating event for this phase is.
This is really cool news especially because it’s not connected to Shangi-Chi. I kinda got the impression that they hired him to direct this because he’s Asian which is performative. Keeping him within their roster of directors for stuff that isn’t Shang-Chi is good progress I think.
Next up, Ryan Coogler.