Wonder Man Will Stick To What Works For Season 2
Don’t expect Marvel’s most subversive show “to suddenly turn into something else.”
Marvel took a lot of fans by surprise when it renewed its latest (and, perhaps, best?) series, Wonder Man, for another season on Disney+. That any Marvel show gets to continue beyond its first season is rare, with only Loki and Daredevil: Born Again really fulfilling that expectation. Most heroes move on after appearing on Disney+, either to another show entirely (like Agatha All Along) or to the big screen, as Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and WandaVision’s Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) did in The Marvels.
Many expected the latter for Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), given where he falls on the spectrum of power for Marvel heroes. As we learned in the last episode of Wonder Man, Simon can control ionic energy, which, alongside his super-strength and capacity for flight, would make him a “powerful asset” to any crime-fighting, Earth-defending agency. In short, he’s definitely Avengers material — and there’s every chance he could pop up in Avengers: Doomsday or another team-up down the line. For now, though, Simon is holding down his corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it might not be long before his adventures continue in Wonder Man Season 2.
According to Andrew Guest — who serves as co-showrunner for Wonder Man alongside Shang-Chi and Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton — scripts for Wonder Man Season 2 are already in progress. Guest confirmed as much at The Hollywood Reporter’s Frontrunners panel in April.
Wonder Man will return sooner or later, but it also won’t become a different show overnight.
Though this season is still in its early stages, it’s nice to know that it’s already in the works. We could see the return of Simon Williams and his unlikely bestie, Trevor Slattery, in 2027 or 2028, if production sticks to a tight schedule. But if nothing else, it’s at least nice to hear that more Wonder Man is on the way, and that it’ll stick to the same themes and tone that made it such a surprise hit in the first place.
“The people who like this show and like it because it feels different are going to be rewarded,” Guest revealed. “And the people who think that this show is going to suddenly turn into something else, I’m sorry to say, it’s not.”
Guest is likely addressing those who were hoping for a more Marvel-y show in Wonder Man. The series is less a superhero project than it is a genuine character study about someone with superhero powers: it’s not splashy, it doesn’t bank its story on explosive set pieces, and it doesn’t feature any familiar faces from the Avengers or otherwise. In a lot of ways, that’s what made it so fun — it’s basically a buddy comedy set within the MCU, but it handles the mundanity with much more confidence than something like She-Hulk, Marvel’s other LA-set series.
Though Simon came closer than ever to realizing his potential as Wonder Man, Season 2 probably won’t force him into an entirely different kind of story. As Guest said, the show is still “about two artists, and our industry,” and that intimate focus will make any wait well worth it.
