#205 – Wonder Man and the Binge Problem

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. This is your host, Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest. And today isn't really about Wonder man, at least not yet. It's about how Marvel chooses to release its stories and what that says about their confidence in them. We just learned that Wonder man is dropping all nine episodes at once. January 27, 2026. I suspect I've seen a few sources state this, and I'll be honest, that makes me nervous. Not because the show looks bad, but because Marvel stories deserve time to breathe. Weekly episodes create conversation, anticipation and community. When everything drops at once, it risks becoming content instead of an event like Marvel is so keen to putting out. So today I want to talk about why that matters, what this release strategy says about Marvel right now. And then we'll go through the Wonder man trail trailer beat by beat. What excites me, what works, and why. I still think the show could still surprise people if Marvel lets it. I want to do this trailer breakdown just because we won't be getting as much episodes via the podcast of Wonder Man. And I'll tell you why a little bit later. Let me be 100% clear. I am not anti Wonder Man. I'm just concerned about the release strategy, not the story quality. Marvel needs to stand behind their shows at launch. It's simple. It's. It's like Marvel zombies. I think they underestimated how many people would like that. And then all of a sudden they've quadrupled down on promoting it instead of just like dropping it quietly like they did with their a few, A few shows like Echo. I forgot about Echo. I liked it. If it were week to week, I probably would remember it a little bit better. And I do understand that a lot of streaming sites and you know, wherever you stream your show, sometimes they just do that. They drop the whole season. It's not something new. But for Marvel MCU shows specifically, it's. I mean, I guess it's the intention of the creator of the show. I'm wondering if that could have a factor in it. But for me, I believe, and this is just speculation, it's more Marvel's decision. Like I said earlier, weekly equals anticipation, discussion and shared experience. The full season drop equals a blur, binge and forget. Marvel TV works better week to week, plain and simple. Marvel under promotes shows before release, then over promotes them after they're proven good. That signals hesitation instead of confidence. Marvel, my nervous. My nervous sense about the show is just really because I. I care. Honestly, I'm nervous because this feels like. Just get it out there. Not nervous because the trailer looks weak, which we're going to actually break down the trailer. So let's do that right now. I'm going to play the trailer and beat by beat, tell you what I'm thinking about this story and what we're going to be seeing on January 27th. So the trailer opens on the Hollywood sign. This is a MCU series that is in the world of the entertainment industry within Marvel. I swear to goodness, within the mcu. I swear to God, I have visioned a show like this. I haven't looked up any of the comics for Wonder Man. Sometimes with shows like that, I kind of want to see how I like the character before I go to the comic because usually great liberties are taken with shows and sometimes the movies and they make them their own. So I like going back and kind of seeing what the comics were about a little bit later. That being said, so we get a lot of shots of the old Wonder Man. So Von Kovacs, Kovacs, he's the creator of Wonder man and this was a show back in the day. I don't know how long it was specifically, but he's doing a remake, a modern day retelling of that show, similar to like Tom Holland taking over the Spider man role. Except this is kind of probably its own cinematic universe within our cinematic universe, which is kind of funny. I. Not really, but it's. It's just. It's funny in the sense that we're watching a show within a show about a show. That being said, Von Kovacs, he's very familiar, if you notice, he's from. I don't mean to. To bring this up, but it's. He's from Superman. He's in Superman. He plays a little bit of a part. We can talk about dc, by the way. Superman was great. That's all. I'll say. I liked it. Good and good for D.C. and James Gunn. But that's not why we're here. That's not why we're here. He's making this remake of Wonder man and we get to see a lot of like, kind of memorabilia, pictures of the old hero. Definitely looks like it's from an older time. Kovac is on an interview and he's saying that there's a chance to recreate and rediscover the whole genre of superhero storytelling, which is interesting. Are we going to see that? Within this show is this meta commentary about what Wonder man will be like. They ask him if he thought about casting and this is where we jump to who we. Who most likely become Wonder Man. Yaha. Abdul Mateen ii. That is a extraordinarily cool name. He'll be playing Simon Williams, who most likely will get to be Wonder man by the end. Ben Kingsley, he is Trevor Slattery. He's. This is his third or fourth MCU presentation, if you want to count the MCU short about him being in jail. We get him In Iron Man 3, he's the Mandarin, and we find out that he's an actor. So this is where I guess he's free now. I guess he's not in trouble for being used as a terrorist. I guess you can also argue that he was being terrorized and held hostage to do the role of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. The fact is, Ben Kingsley bringing Trevor Slattery back is just a treat. I think it's going to be a centerpiece of the show. I, I think he'll be a big, like, secondary character. So we'll see. We'll see what we're like, what his mini story is going to be. We're going to be seeing more of him than we have ever. And it's some nice continuity bringing back older characters in the MCU that aren't necessarily the centerpiece of the shows, but definitely our comedic backbone and iconic to a level where a lot of people will probably stay and watch the show only for him if. If they're just sort of getting into it in the beginning. Slattery admits to Simon that he's auditioning for Wonder man, which I'm assuming gives Simon the idea to audition himself. He goes to his, what seems to be like, agent in Hollywood, and he asked, he asked them if they've heard about Wonder man. And he says he needs to be in this movie. And I don't know if it's his agent or the assistance of the agent. However, she just kind of laughs at him, kind of showing how big this part is. The fact that they're casting what seems to be a amateur actor for the role, it's. It's a big deal in this, in the mcu. And Simon insists that he was born to play this character. She thinks he's completely joking. And she, she says they're already talking to Leo decaps. I guess Leonardo DiCaprio is a living actor in the MCU. That it makes me sad because I want him to be a character at some point. I mean, imagine we get Leonardo DiCaprio in a big superhero role. He would hold the franchise with those Acting chops alone. And then we moved to Simon doing some classic theater warm ups. I was a theater kid. I was in speech and theater for year at least like four years across high school and college. And he's doing all these little warm up things. He's shaking his face, he's stretching, he's stretching the face muscles. And it always looks silly, especially irl when you're doing that kind of thing as a, as a theater person waking up to get ready for your role, your audition or your part. Heart. He talks to himself in the mirror. He says, you got to just go out there and crush it. I like that. I think a lot of actors or upcoming actors, anyone who's in the entertainment industry or trying to break into it will probably relate a lot to this show. We get to see kind of where the auditions being held. You could see maybe like 50 people out there trying to get their act together for Wonder Man. I totally bombed a big audition for a huge musical once because I was intimidated by the guy in the room. I could hear him doing the part insanely well. The number one key to an audition is not to compare yourself to anyone. Don't let that get in your head and, you know, be yourself or be, you know, the role that you're trying to put out there without influence from the other people doing things different. What makes you memorable is who you are as a person, not anyone else's idea of what the role should be. And I'm assuming we're gonna get a lot. I'm going to be saying I'm assuming a lot this episode, but I think we're gonna get a lot of actor moments and a lot of actor sub meta talk. Hollywood shows that are about Hollywood, they tend to deep, deep, kind of deep dive into themselves because it's a definite, it's definitely being written for. From a place that knows this world better than like any world. Slattery and Simon have a conversation that he's trying to create a backstory for the role. And Slattery just, he has a completely different method. He says, just go in there and deliver the lines pretty much. And that's not Simon's process. So the exact thing that I just mentioned because this trailer came out two months ago. But like I said, I'm doing this now because I know it's all coming out at once. So I'd kind of like to preface this, this show, when I thought we were doing nine episodes of it, I figured we could pro, you know, process a little bit as we're going but we're going to process and predict through this trailer today. And exactly what I was talking about a bit ago, hearing other people do the same part you're auditioning for. You hear the whole audition table. Like the judges, AKA they're not the judges. Like the. The casting people. They're all losing it and laughing at the guy that's going in ahead of you. And one of the actors says to Simon, man, that guy's killing it in there. It's the exact thing you don't want to be thinking about going in. And yet he's fallen into that trap already. The trailer makes it look like the guy that is killing it in there is Trevor Slattery. And they say, where do I. One of the casting people says, where have I seen him before? And the other lady says, I'm pretty sure he was a terrorist. And it cuts to him as the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. I mean, we're doing callbacks to movies that. Iron Man 3 that came out 12 freaking years ago. And that's what I love about the mcu. I love it. Simon says. Simon Williams, reading for Wonder Man. He is looking a little bit nervous, I'll be honest with you, because he's got his hands in his pockets, and that's a big no. No. You don't want to keep your hands in your pockets. I mean, if you're walking down the street, keep your hands warm. Yeah, but like in an audition, seems definitely like you're nervous. Definitely gives off that sign. And he actually gets a call back, and his agent is the lady from the first meeting. So I guess this lady is going to be in the show a lot as his agent, which I think is great. She's funny. She says, just be normal, man. Don't botch this. She tries to get him in a good mindset by kind of yelling at him and telling him to not screw the pooch on this one. So they go to Kovac's house. It's a big mansion. He wants to meet Simon in his living room. And with him accompanied, no joke. It's Trevor Slattery. I don't know, maybe he does kill it as an actor. He was pretty dang good as the Mandarin. I like that villain. And then when they revealed him, he was so convincing as the villain, the Mandarin, that when he dropped it and became Trevor, it was so funny. It was one of the greatest comedic moments in Iron Man 3. One of the funniest moments for this character. And almost just in general, it's a really hilarious actor. And he's not a terrorist. As they're walking into Mark Kovac's house, to me it seemed like there was only going to be just those two guys, Slattery and Simon, auditioning for the role. But there is also maybe like six to eight other guys in the live in the living room. And then Kovacs comes out and he speaks to the actors. He tells them to explore the space within fiction and non fiction, most likely because they are in a superhero world and they're doing a superhero movie. Kovac is very confident. He says we're going to make the last movie on earth and that no one will have the balls to make another another movie. This movie is going to be so good, you're never going to want to watch a movie again. I wish Disney was as confident in this show as, as Kovac is in his movie. And then we hear and action. And we see the big Wonder Man. Letters larger than life. Simon calls his agent at the end of the trailer to see if there's any news on that on the part. She says pretty much stop calling her about it. His reaction is pretty funny to that. So it is an eight episode series. I think I might have said nine before. So eight all at once. Streaming January 27th. So we do have a bit ways away for that. However, I was preparing to do an eight week run every week talking about an episode of this show. It's not going to happen. If anything like this, like when it comes out on the day, we'll do what we did for Marvel Zombies. We'll cover each episode in one big episode. Most likely for this show. It's going to be more of a summary, standout moments. We'll see how the show goes. I'll take light notes across the way, but I like just taking it all in then talking about what stood out to me the most. It'll be a really fun episode and I can only hope that the show's great. I think I, I, I think it's got promise because in my opinion, in my prediction after watching this trailer, I think that they're making him a superhero in real life somehow. So he'll be a superhero within a superhero show, be acting into a superhero show and also being a superhero. I'm going down a funnel here. It's one of these fun shows though that's kind of meta and it's going to be fun to see within the mcu. What is a superhero game like when there's real superheroes? What are the movies like? And what's this remake going to be. And is Simon going to become a superhero with powers? Or is this going to be a grounded show in the MCU with the comedic sidekick Trevor Slattery and Simon going on an adventure to become Wonder Man? No, there's got to be superpowers somewhere in all this. I sure hope so. So that's a trailer. Short but sweet. We haven't gotten much more since then. I'll cover Wonder man in at least most likely one, maybe two episodes if it really feels like I should be doing that after I watch it. There's not going to be any fake weekly breakdowns when Marvel isn't doing weekly. That's just as simple as that. Either one big series discussion or a two big episode setup, ending and then themes. It'll be fun either way. And after binge watching it, it'll probably take me maybe a week. So I'm assuming like the first week of February we'll have that episode out. All right, Marvel Maniacs, if you enjoyed this episode, short but sweet, do me a huge favor right now, rate the show five stars and leave a quick review. I know it sounds small, but it's not. It's one of the biggest ways you can help this podcast grow, get seen, and stay alive in the algorithm. 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