It’s kind of funny that we knew that Ben Kingsley would return to play Trevor Slattery in Marvel’s Wonder Man series before we knew who would star as the title character. But the wait is over, Wonder Man fans: Deadline reports that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who was incredible in Watchmen, is your Wonder Man!
Wonder Man—real name Simon Williams—is the son of an industrialist who inherits his father’s munitions factory but can’t compete with the dominance of Stark Industries. He gets involved with Baron Zemo and, as part of a plan to infiltrate the Avengers, gets superpowers (one can just do this if one knows the right people, apparently). There are many elaborate details in Wonder Man’s story over the years, but it seems especially worth noting that has connections with both Kang the Conqueror, who is about to be very important in Marvel films, and Vision, who is also getting his own series.
Eventually, Wonder Man becomes an Avenger, which it seems quite a few characters are on a path to do.
Abdul-Mateen drew a lot of attention for his work in Watchmen, but had already established himself with a series of strong roles before that, including on the show The Get Down and in Us and Aquaman (his Black Manta will return in the sequel). He also starred in Candyman, and stepped into the shoes (and incredible suits, pictured above) of Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrections.
Wonder Man, which was announced in June, comes from head writer Andrew Guest (Community, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and director/executive producer Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). No release date or production timeline has been announced.
