The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down with Wonder Man director Destin Daniel Cretton, head writer Andrew Guest, and lead star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. There are lots of interesting tidbits from the conversation, including how the latter ended up joining the MCU.
"Man, I was over there, looking over the fence, waiting for a chance to come play in Marvel world," the Aquaman and Watchmen star revealed. "It was so cool what Marvel was building. It was fun, funny and smart. My friends were on the Marvel side. And I really wanted to play."
During his meeting with Kevin Feige, Abdul-Mateen II wanted to make sure that Simon Williams was the right choice of character to finally bring him into the franchise. After all, on the DC side, he'd previously played heavy-hitters such as Doctor Manhattan and Black Manta.
"I said, 'I still need to talk to Fiege,'" the actor recalled. "To make sure that this actually made sense for me to do. And my reps did not want me to bug him for a conversation. And I said, 'No, I need to talk to him.' They said, 'Maybe somebody else,' and I said 'Get him on the phone or I’m going to say no.'"
"I asked him, 'I only get one Marvel buck to spend. Is this worth my dollar, because I can wait?' And he said, 'No, trust me, it will be worth it,'" he continued. "And I’m so glad this is the role I got to spend my dollar on because I’m getting all of the super stuff and I’m getting all of the human stuff at the same time."
While a big part of what made Wonder Man special was Simon's dynamic with Trevor Slattery, Abdul-Mateen II and Sir Ben Kingsley didn't exactly become the best of friends when they first met over Zoom.
"I wanted to introduce myself to the guy who would be my partner," he said. "[Kingsley] let me know quickly that he don’t need a thing. He [was] not going to need a thing from me. And if I wanted to make any changes to the script, that I’d better do it now because he’s putting those words in his head and once they go in, it is stones. That is what he said."
"I was like, 'Oh, OK. All right. I will talk to you later. I will let you get back to your glass of wine.' That lit a fire under me. I was like, 'I don’t think Sir Ben knows who he’s dealing with.'" Fortunately, when they caught up in rehearsals and later during production, they became "in cahoots" as Abdul-Mateen II puts it, and "formed a partnership that allowed us to advocate for those characters."
The duo will reunite in Wonder Man Season 2, which Guest confirmed is now being written. However, anyone hoping for it to suddenly become a typical superhero series pitting Simon against the Department of Damage Control will likely be disappointed.
"The people who like this show and like it because it feels different are going to be rewarded," he 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. Simon still has superpowers. It is still about this relationship, about two artists, and our industry. That is essentially what we want to maintain."
It's a relief to hear that Wonder Man isn't going to move away from what makes it stand out from the crowd, though it will be interesting to see how it balances that focus on acting when Simon and Trevor are presumably fugitives. A lot of disguises, perhaps?
Wonder Man Season 1 is now streaming in full on Disney+.