From 2013 to 2019, fans grew used to Marvel Television churning out seasons of traditional and streaming TV series that mostly consisted of 22 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) or 13 (Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage). As Marvel Studios began to produce their own series for Disney Plus, episode counts dropped significantly as did total runtime. The studio’s first series, WandaVision, was made up of 9 episodes that added up to only just about six hours of content. To date, with the exception of the five-episode Echo, the studio’s live-action series have had either six or nine episodes that have been structured more like films than TV series. Moving forward, the studio’s production practices are said to be changing and a series that the studio has hardly addressed at all may be one of the first examples of those changes.
First reported to be in development in June 2022, Wonder Man will finally introduce one of Marvel Comics’ classic Avengers to the MCU. Yahya Abdul-Mateen ll will play stuntman turned super hero Simon Williams in the series which was written by Community and Brooklyn Nine-Nine scribe Andrew Guest and overseen by Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton. Despite photos of the production making their way online, fans have questioned if the series truly existed or if they were experiencing the Mandela Effect. Now, another trade has provided an update on the series that should help alleviate any concern.
According to Deadline, Wonder Man—which was produced under the Marvel Spotlight banner–will consist of ten episodes.
In February 2023, Stephen Broussard provided the only official comments by the studio about the series.
-Stephen Broussard
[Wonder Man will] be definitely influenced by the comics. One of the things that we’re excited about it is that it’s going to feel very unique. It’s not going to feel like anything you’ve quite seen in the MCU before. And the kind of stories we can tell on Disney+, which has been fun. Like streaming, serialized storytelling is a totally different muscle. So, we’re having a blast making that one.
While there’s no timeline for when fans can expect the series to hit Disney Plus, it seems possible that it may not debut on the streamer until 2026 as it was left out of the studio’s Upfront presentation this Spring.
Source: Deadline
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