I watched all of Wonder Man on Disney+ — and the new Marvel TV show deserves a standing ovation for breaking the MCU mould
· TechRadarTechRadar Verdict
Wonder Man gets 2026 off to the best possible start for Marvel Studios. Anchored by pitch-perfect performances from its lead duo, it's the type of MCU project that I'm constantly asking for more of from the Disney subsidiary. Make more unmissable shows – and movies – like this, Marvel, and those tiresome tropes about superhero fatigue would soon be a thing of the past.
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Light spoilers follow for all eight episode of Wonder Man.
2026 is a big year for Marvel. With its cinematic universe struggling to rediscover the consistency that defined its first decade, there's never been more pressure on highly-anticipated movies like Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day to get people back onside.
And yet, it falls on Wonder Man, the comic book giant's first Disney+ show of the year, to convince casual fans that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is worth sticking with or jumping back into. It's a wonderful thing, then, that Wonder Man is a franchise-disrupting, metatextual caper that's arguably the studio's most creative TV original since WandaVision.
I was born to play this character
Produced under the Marvel Spotlight banner, Wonder Man introduces us to Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul- Mateen II), a luckless and capricious actor struggling for work in the MCU's version of Hollywood.
Williams' tortured nature is captured with pitch-perfect intensity and gravitas by Abul-Mateen II
When Williams learns that Oscar-winning director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić) is remaking 'Wonder Man', an in-universe movie that's also his favorite film of all time, Williams vows land the lead role. Well, as long as he can keep his biggest secret – as one of Wonder Man's teasers confirmed, that he possesses actual superpowers – under wraps.
Having superhuman abilities should be advantageous for a project like this, right? Not if you're Simon Williams, a serial overthinker whose passion for his craft often makes him difficult to deal with personally and professionally.
His failure to secure regular work and tendency to lose the roles he does get due to a passion interpreted as overzealous interference are, unsurprisingly, emotionally destabilizing moments for Williams. Add in your demonstrably powerful abilities appearing whenever you experience negative emotions, and that's a recipe for disaster.
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