Wonder Man: Everything to Know About Disney+'s New Marvel TV Show

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is barreling toward this summer's epic new team-up, Avengers: Doomsday, but the biggest brand in Hollywood has a couple more things for fans of the franchise before we get there. One of those is Wonder Man, a limited series from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton and longtime TV writer Andrew Guest. 

Wonder Man is not exactly a household name — this Marvel hero has only a very small fraction of the cultural cachet enjoyed by DC's Wonder Woman, for one thing. That doesn't mean that Wonder Man is an insignificant part of the Marvel pantheon — he's actually cosmically powerful. But that's not obvious at all from the marketing on this series so far. So let's take a look at what we do know about the MCU's next TV show.

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Wonder Man release date

All eight episodes of Wonder Man will drop on Disney+ on Jan. 27, 2026. The binge model is unusual for a Marvel series — the only other MCU series to do that was Echo. But there's a specific reason why that is, which we'll get to later.

Wonder Man trailers

The first trailer, which dropped in October, was pretty offbeat, focusing on a pair of men, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who are trying to get the role of Wonder Man in a new movie. There are no superpowers visible in the trailer, but you can bet there will be some in the show itself.

Or even in the next trailer, released in January just a few weeks before the series premiere. The series' final trailer covers a lot of the same ground as the previous teaser — but it also gives a brief glimpse of Simon's powers, and shows an agent for Damage Control talking about Simon being a major threat.

Marvel has also dropped a number of teasers on social media, and one in particular caught our attention because it showed us our first look at Simon's brother Eric (Demetrius Grosse), potentially the show's main villain, declaring angrily that "Simon has no interest in helping this family." Check out that short teaser here.

What is Wonder Man about?

Here's the official synopsis from Marvel: Aspiring Hollywood actor Simon Williams is struggling to get his career off the ground. During a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery, an actor whose biggest roles may be well behind him, Simon learns legendary director Von Kovak is remaking the superhero film "Wonder Man." These two actors at opposite ends of their careers doggedly pursue life-changing roles in this film as audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry.

Wonder Man potential storylines

The series is clearly playing things close to the vest, with the first trailer being all about two actors competing for a big movie role while not including any kind of superhero action at all, and the second only giving us a brief look at superpowers in action. Clearly, there will be some sort of major plot twist that will reveal that there is something more, and possibly nefarious, going on with the in-universe movie that Simon is trying to get cast in, which is being directed by a famously eccentric and experimental European filmmaker named Von Kovak — like if Lars von Trier or Werner Herzog signed on for a Marvel flick. It's possible that director Kovak will be the one who is responsible for giving Simon his powers as part of this movie production.

In the comics, Wonder Man is a very powerful dude, having essentially been transformed into an energy being after getting bombarded with ions by Baron Zemo. Because of that, he can't be defeated normally — only powerful energy weapons that disrupt his ions are capable of harming him. 

There's no indication that Baron Zemo will pop up in this story, but it's always possible he'll have a cameo since the character was established in Captain America: Civil War, and he re-appeared later in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But it's much more likely that the filmmaker Von Kovak is filling that role in this series.

But the best candidate for a villain in this one, based on what we do know so far, is Simon's brother Eric (Demetrius Grosse), known in Marvel Comics as the magic-powered supervillain Grim Reaper.

Wonder Man's powers

In the comics, Wonder Man is one of those ultra-powerful, god-like superheroes (like Thor) who can pretty much do anything they want while being mostly invulnerable to harm. Wonder Man even takes it one step further, because he's made of ionic energy — even disintegrating his body won't kill him, because the ionic particles will eventually re-congeal into a person again, like Sauron from Lord of the Rings. He's super overpowered, in other words.

Wonder Man cast and crew

The showrunner of Wonder Man is Andrew Guest, and Destin Daniel Cretton helped develop the series and directed the first two episodes. Along with Abdul-Mateen II, Grosse, and Kingsley, the series will feature Zlatko Burić as quirky filmmaker Von Kovak, and Arian Moayed as a Damage Control agent who previously appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms. Marvel. X Mayo, Olivia Thirlby, Josh Gad, Lauren Glazier, Ed Harris, and Joe Pantoliano will also appear in the series.

Wonder Man cast list

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams / Wonder Man
• Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery
• Demetrius Grosse as Eric Williams / Grim Reaper
• Zlatko Buric as Von Kovak
• Arian Moayed as Agent Cleary
• Olivia Thirlby
• Ed Harris
• Josh Gad
• Lauren Glazier 
• Joe Pantoliano
• Simon Templeman

Will Wonder Man be relevant to the rest of the MCU?

Wonder Man is a Marvel Spotlight series, which means that even though it's part of the MCU, it probably won't tell a story that affects the rest of the franchise. The only previous TV series to release under that banner was Echo, which has not been referenced in the MCU since it aired, even though the events of that series directly led Kingpin to become mayor of New York in Daredevil: Born Again. With that being the case, there's no reason to expect the story in Wonder Man to have any significant impact on the rest of the MCU. But with the greater franchise constantly pivoting in every available direction, you never really know with these things.

But even though Wonder Man probably won't be in any Avengers movies, his series still has some connections to the greater franchise. Ben Kingsley's character, Trevor Slattery, first appeared in the MCU in Iron Man 3, and he popped up again in Shang-Chi, so he's someone we know pretty well by this point. It wouldn't be too surprising if we had other MCU side characters popping up, like Abomination in She-Hulk or Kingpin on Echo. And since the series is focused on Hollywood and show business, there's a pretty good chance we'll get some celebrities playing themselves.

Where to watch other MCU shows and movies

You can enjoy every film and TV series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+.