As fans prepare to dive into The Punisher: One Last Kill on Disney+, a new report from The Direct is fueling speculation that this Special Presentation might be the final audition for a full-blown theatrical Punisher movie.
While the current project is a standalone, 40ish-minute Marvel Spotlight entry, the conversation is rapidly shifting toward Frank Castle’s big-screen potential—especially with Jon Bernthal already confirmed for a major role in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The Punisher: One Last Kill isn’t just another MCU spin-off; it’s a mission statement. Bernthal didn’t just return as the lead; he also co-wrote and executive produced the special alongside director Reinaldo Marcus Green. This level of creative involvement suggests Marvel is trusting Bernthal to define the adult tone of the character’s MCU future.
Moving forward. I think, speaking for myself, I know Jon, and I would love to make a movie, something that could go worldwide and be on screens everywhere. But obviously, that’ll be Marvel’s decision.
-Reinaldo Marcus Green
Green admitted that while One Last Kill is a streaming event, both he and Bernthal “would love” to see Frank Castle lead his own theatrical film. “Obviously, that’ll be Marvel’s decision,” Green noted, but emphasized that the demand for an R-rated theatrical Punisher has never been higher.
To be honest, I can’t speak to that. I don’t know what the plans are for the future of the Punisher. The only thing that we hope that we were able to accomplish is the demand for more if we were able to accomplish that. Hopefully Jon [Bernthal] and Marvel will come together to make something worthy of what the audience would want to see out of that character.
-Reinaldo Marcus Green
Following the success of Deadpool & Wolverine and the two TV-MA seasons of Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel Studios is reportedly no longer afraid of the R-rating in theaters. With Disney pivoting back toward theatrical releases and away from aggressive streaming slates, Frank Castle is the perfect candidate to lead a lower-budget, high-impact, R-rated Marvel Knights cinematic line.
Set both after the events of Netflix’s The Punisher Season 2 and during the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, One Last Kill will tee up Frank for his upcoming big screen debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
While the Special Presentation is designed to be standalone, it will certainly reference some of the events from both seasons of The Punisher and Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again. With that in mind, we present The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before The Punisher: One Last Kill.
The Complete and Definitive MCU Punisher Prep
If you have time to watch it all before you decide to stream One Last Kill, here’s everything to make sure you maximize your enjoyment. Though The Punisher did not appear in Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, it is most certainly relevant since One Last Kill is set during it and explains what Castle was doing during the season.
If you start now, you can take it all in before the streaming debut of One Last Kill.
Essential Prep
Daredevil, Season 2 (2016)
🍅 81%
Episodes 1-4, 9 and 11
To understand the Punisher, you have to witness the tragedy that birthed him. While his debut in Daredevil Season 2 is packed with visceral action, its true importance lies in the ideological war between Matt Murdock and Frank Castle. In Episodes 1-4, we see Frank at his most raw, culminating in the “Penny and Dime” monologue that redefined the character for a generation. These episodes aren’t just backstory; they establish the “no-half-measures” code that puts him at odds with the current street-level heroes in Born Again. Furthermore, Episode 9 is the first piece of the puzzle for his relationship with Wilson Fisk, showing a mutual respect between two monsters that still haunts the MCU today.
The Punisher, Season 1 (2017)
🍅 68%
Episode 1
The 2017 premiere of Frank’s solo series, titled “3 AM,” is a masterclass in the War at Home. It shows Frank Castle attempting the impossible: quitting. By burning his gear and taking a sledgehammer to literal walls, Frank tries to bury the soldier. This episode is the essential spiritual predecessor to One Last Kill, which begins with Frank once again trying to find a life beyond the violence. It also sets up his showdown with Ma Gnucci–played by Judith Light–in the special presentation.
While you could skip straight to Born Again, Jon Bernthal and showrunner Dario Scardapane have been vocal in interviews (and the Born Again Official Podcast) that the Netflix shows are not only 100% canon but crucial to understanding the man and his mission.
The Punisher, Season 2 (2019)
🍅 61%
Episode 13
The Season 2 finale of the Netflix era serves as the definitive transition into the Frank we see in the 2026 specials. It is here that Frank stops running from his nature and accepts that he is a “man in the box.” By ending the season with Frank dual-wielding rifles against a street gang, the show signaled his transformation from a man seeking revenge to a vigilante seeking a purpose. This version of Frank—the one who accepts his role as a necessary evil—is the exact version that Mayor Fisk now uses as a boogeyman to justify his anti-vigilante task forces.
Pay close attention to the return of Jason R. Moore as Curtis Hoyle. While Frank is the hammer, Curtis has always been the anvil Frank relies on to stay grounded. Frank is going to need every ounce of that Netflix-era humanity to survive, Ma Gnucci, a villain who is just as relentless as he is.
In this episode, Frank Castle’s return is triggered by the ultimate insult: the co-opting of his symbol. For years, the Punisher Skull had been adopted by a faction of corrupt NYPD officers—the very men Fisk uses to enforce his order. When Frank finally steps out of the shadows to confront these officers, it isn’t just about vigilantism; it’s about identity theft. He makes it clear that the skull isn’t a badge of authority or a trend—it’s a mark of a man who has lost everything and has nothing left to fear. This episode is crucial for One Last Kill because it establishes Frank’s current mission: cleaning up the mess his own reputation created. He isn’t just hunting criminals anymore; he’s hunting those who wear his face while breaking the law.
Episode 4 also serves as the first major reunion between Red and the Punisher in years, but the tone has shifted significantly since their rooftop debates. While they are still fundamentally at odds regarding the sanctity of life, there is a weary, veteran respect between them. Frank sees a Matt Murdock who is increasingly desperate and isolated after the loss of Foggy Nelson. In this episode, Frank acts as a dark mirror, forcing Matt to realize that the city Fisk is building has no room for “really good lawyers.” It sets the stage for Frank’s role in the One Last Kill special as the man who does what Matt Murdock can no longer afford to do: finish the job permanently.
Episode 9
Frank’s return in the first season of Born Again was a shock to the system. In Episode 9, we see a Frank Castle who has been forced to watch his symbol be co-opted by corrupt NYPD officers—a plot point that Bernthal has noted was a major inspiration for the One Last Kill special. This episode is crucial because it updates Frank’s status quo: he is no longer just a lone wolf; he is a witness to the systemic rot of Fisk’s New York. His confrontation with Matt about the death of Foggy Nelson provides the emotional fuel for his current state of mind, bridging the gap between his personal grief and his new civic rage. And, of course, One Last Kill will follow Castle after his escape from Fisk’s dungeon prison and explain his absence from Born Again Season 2.
If you are truly pressed for time, here’s a boiled-down “Must-Watch” list:
Daredevil Season 2, Episode 4 (“Penny and Dime”) — The emotional soul of the character.
The Punisher Season 1, Ep 1 (“3 AM”) — Frank’s return to his mission and his attack on the Gnucci crime family.
Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 9 — To see his new MCU status quo and his escape from Fisk’s dungeon that once again sets him loose on the criminals of New York City.
About The Punisher: One Last Kill
The Punisher: One Last Kill stars Jon Bernthal, Judith Light, Jason R. Moore, Roe Rancell, Mila Jaymes, Nick Koumalatsos, and Colton Hill.
As Frank Castle searches for meaning beyond revenge, an unexpected force pulls him back into the fight.
The Special Presentation was written by Jon Bernthal & Reinaldo Marcus Green. Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Jon Bernthal, and Reinaldo Marcus Green executive-produced.
The Punisher: One Last Kill debuts May 12th on Disney +.
Described by Marvel Studios’ Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation, Brad Winderbaum, as a “love letter to Hollywood” and a story “that anyone who came up in Hollywood or in the arts in general can relate to,” Marvel Television’s Wonder Man may indeed be just that…though at times anyone who did not come up in Hollywood might find themselves feeling a bit like a fifth grader on the outside of an inside joke. True to the word of Winderbaum, Wonder Man is entirely unlike anything Marvel has done because, at least in part, it feels as though it was created for the enjoyment of those who create.
A character study at its core, Wonder Man is almost entirely devoid of superhero action, choosing rather to spend its narrative currency peeling back the layers of the psyches of Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery. Like Midnight Cowboy, the film that brings the two together, Wonder Man is indeed, as advertised, a two-hander in which each of the dual protagonists recognizes the other as, perhaps, the first genuine human connection either has ever had. Over the course of seven of the eight episodes (an entire episode of Wonder Man is dedicated to NEITHER Simon nor Trevor), the leads’ personas are stripped bare, with Simon’s history told through fragmented flashbacks that deconstruct the damaged and insecure boy that lives behind the facade of an overconfident man. Simon is ALWAYS acting; however, it’s only when he realizes that he’s acting that he struggles.
As a character study devoted to the genre, Wonder Man stands apart from traditional superhero fare. By the design of co-creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, the stakes of its plot are emotional rather than physical. Despite Simon being perhaps one of the MCU’s most powerful individuals, the series eschews the genre’s classic climax for one that is simply anticlimactic. The earliest marketing for the series gave away the fate of Simon’s pursuit of his dream role, even if it did cleverly conceal the project’s best twist which isn’t a revelation about Simon. As such, Wonder Man follows a couple of actors talking about acting while pursuing acting roles for the vast majority of its runtime, with very little time spent on the unnatural abilities possessed by Simon Williams. By focusing on the mundane aspects of being a powered individual in the film industry (auditions, stunt work, publicists), the show humanizes Simon. While Wonder Man does provide Simon with the occasional opportunity to show off his powers on street-level cannon fodder, there’s more tension present in scenes where he’s trying to crack the backstory of his character in American Horror Story.
Though the time spent with Simon is rewarding, such little time is devoted to his innate ionic powers that the presence of the series de facto antagonists, the Department of Damage Control, feels shoehorned and contrived. Arguably, this is the one area in which Wonder Man taking place within a deeply developed shared universe based on superheroes forces a betrayal of Cretton and Guest‘s intent. Classic character studies rarely involve a conflict with an external aggressor, focusing rather on how the protagonist’s psyche prevents him from achieving his desired purpose. Given that Wonder Man thoroughly and expertly explores that avenue, it seems clear that the DODC’s inclusion was *suggested* by the Marvel Parliament rather than being narratively native. While it seems Marvel’s intent is that the DODC is destined to become the precursor of the MCU’s anti-Mutant division–even though it is not clear if Simon is a mutant in the MCU–their presence is one of the primary perplexities of the series.
Another is why Simon William is the protagonist of Wonder Man at all. Though it’s hardly the first time it has done so, Marvel Studios significantly reinvents Simon Williams–and those around him–for the MCU. And strangely, given the series’ designation as a Marvel Spotlight project–there’s no guarantee the decision to do so will eventually be paid off or explained. Yes, this Simon is prone to bouts of self-doubt, works in Hollywood and has incredible ionic powers; however, the decision to make Simon a mutant rather than a mutate strips him of the agency that made him such a polarizing character in his early adventures in the pages of Marvel Comics. An interesting choice to be sure and one that may never be liquidated. From his background to his family connections to the source of his powers, the MCU’s Simon has surprisingly little in common with his comic book counterpart…but nearly none of that matters when a star the caliber of Yahya Abul-Mateen II is involved.
In Wonder Man, Cretton and Guest created the equivalent of an HBO prestige streaming series. Rather than fill the runtime with superhero moments, Wonder Man lingers on the mundane, revealing the true natures of Simon and Trevor in a strangely slow burn for a series with such short runtimes. In the case of Simon, Wonder Man introduces an insecure man seeking validation. But brilliantly, the series uses Trevor as a dark mirror to Simon. If Wonder Man presents Simon as a study of a man trying to find himself through fame, Trevor is a study of a man who has completely lost himself to the performance. Trevor’s character study is built on the tragedy of a failed artist who finally found his greatest role by accident.
Whether he’s in a high-security prison or a warlord’s compound, Trevor’s constant performing ensures people find him too entertaining to kill. This reveals a deep instinct for self-preservation: Trevor doesn’t know how to be authentic because, in his world, being yourself gets you hurt. Strip away the accents and the anecdotes about “the stage” and his “mum” and you meet a man with a fundamental void of identity. Trevor is a character study in codependency. He needs an audience to tell him he exists. Without someone watching him, Slattery effectively vanishes. Using Trevor as a secondary character study reveals a man who uses acting as a survival mechanism and a psychological shield, serving as a near-perfect foil to Simon Williams’s worldview. And in Simon, he meets his co-dependent.
Where Trevor’s patience and experience provide him the relief of being the consummate actor, Simon holds the power of a god but the temperament of a struggling artist, creating a fish-out-of-water dynamic that makes Wonder Man such a particularly clever choice for a character study. While most superhero projects focus on the hero’s journey, Wonder Man is designed as a satirical character study, peeling back the layers of a man who is literally and figuratively performing for a living.
Tonally, Wonder Man balances comedy with a sense of isolation. Tragicomical character studies often use humor to mask a character’s deep-seated loneliness and Wonder Man is no different here, other than that it is led by Yahya Abdul-Matteen II, whose filmography reveals a generational talent.
Despite the series’ shortcomings in terms of its utility as another entry in the MCU’s shared narrative tapestry (it’s only in its last 15 minutes that Wonder Man feels like it belongs in the MCU), the series is undoubtedly one of Marvel Television’s best and, despite some other heavy competition, is carried by the studio’s strongest cast. At the end of the day, the only question that remains is why is was developed as a superhero study at all.
Marvel’s 2026 slate kicks off on January 27th with the eight-episode streaming series Wonder Man. Revealed to be in development in the summer of 2022, Wonder Man was shrouded so heavily in mystery that some fans questioned its existence. Developed for Disney Plus by Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton and Hawkeye and Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Andrew Guest, the series will see Yaha Abdul-Mateen II step into the role of Simon Williams, a longtime Avenger in the pages of Marvel Comics whose jump to the MCU took a little longer than expected after Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon divulged he could never “figure out what he was for.”
You know it’s a two-hander between two amazing characters. There’s this odd couple of Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery and you get a little bit of glimpse of that in the trailer. I don’t wanna go too much into story details, it’s very fun to see people speculating about what the plot will be.
With Whedon long-since out of the loop, the Marvel Parliament determined that the best way to use Simon Williams was to satirize Hollywood. Marvel Television top dog Brad Winderbaum has said that the Marvel Spotlight series “is a love letter to Hollywood in a lot of ways,” including providing the audience with “a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry.”
As the viral and meta marketing for the project has revealed, the series will follow Williams as he attempts to land the role of a lifetime as the lead in a remake of the classic, in-universe superhero film Wonder Man. However, with super-powered folks not allowed to work in the industry, Simon will be forced to try to hide his powers from not only those in Hollywood but also the Department of Damage Control, the organization first seen on screen in Spider-Man: Homecoming and the de facto villains of the series
That is part of the fun of it. If you’re a fan of West Coast Avengers and know a little bit about Simon Williams you’re going to be… I mean, I hope if you’re anything like me, you’re going to be very excited to see how much homage to the source material there is.
Unlike Ironheart, which followed up on Riri Williams after her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Wonder Man marks the first MCU appearance of the character but that doesn’t mean there’s not a little homework to do before checking out the Marvel Spotlight series. And so we bring you the Ultimate List of What to Watch Before Wonder Man!
Iron Man 3 (2013)
🍅 79%
Though Simon Williams is making his MCU debut in Wonder Man, the other half of the show’s odd couple, Trevor Slattery, has had plenty of screentime over the last decade and change.
When we look back at the Infinity Saga, few moments caused quite the seismic divide in the fandom as the “Mandarin Twist” in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3. At the center of that controversy? A washed-up, drug-addled British actor named Trevor Slattery. To understand Slattery’s role, you have to separate the marketing from the movie, because that was the genius—and for some, the betrayal—of the character.
It kind of has this trilogy feeling. After ‘Wonder Man’ Season 1 you can map out…
-Brad Winderbaum
For the first half of the film, Slattery (played to perfection by Sir Ben Kingsley) was presented as The Mandarin. He was the ultimate boogeyman, a classic warlord broadcasting lessons of terror to the United States. Then came the scene in the Miami stronghold. Tony infiltrates the headquarters, expecting a final showdown with a mastermind. Instead, he finds Slattery fresh out of the bathroom, popping open a beer, and rambling about his drug supply in a thick Liverpudlian accent.
Slattery wasn’t a warlord. He was a struggling stage actor with a substance abuse problem and a history of failed pilots. Aldrich Killian, the film’s real villain, hired Slattery to be the face of his Extremis experiments. Killian needed a terrorist narrative to cover up the volatile explosions caused by his unstable super-soldiers.
Despite the hate, Slattery’s role was crucial for Tony Stark’s character arc. It forced Tony to stop chasing ghosts and face the reality that his demons were of his own making, not some foreign mystic.
All Hail the King (2014)
If Iron Man 3 was the movie that divided the fanbase, All Hail the King was the olive branch Kevin Feige and crew extended to bring us all back together. Released with Thor: The Dark World‘s home media, this 14-minute short film is arguably one of the most important pieces of canon in the Infinity Saga, fundamentally retconning the MCU to make room for the real Mandarin.
We pick up with Trevor Slattery living his absolute best life inside Seagate Prison. He’s not being treated like a terrorist; he’s being treated like a celebrity. He has his own “butler,” a fan club, and he’s still completely oblivious to the gravity of the crimes in which he was complicit.
The narrative frame is a documentary being filmed by a journalist named Jackson Norriss, played by Scoot McNairy. Norriss is digging into Trevor’s past, looking at his failed pilots and his childhood. Trevor thinks this is just another puff piece to stroke his ego. He’s rambling about his acting method, completely unaware that the vibe in the room is shifting. Norriss isn’t there to celebrate Trevor; he’s there to bury him. In the final act, Norriss drops the act. He pulls a gun, kills the guards, and reveals his true allegiance. He isn’t a journalist. He is a member of the Ten Rings.
The Ten Rings are furious that a drug-addled British actor made a mockery of their leader’s name. Norriss isn’t there to kill Trevor in prison. He’s breaking him out to take him to the boss. As Norriss puts it, the boss “wants his name back.”
By revealing that Killian merely co-opted the iconography of a real ancient warlord, they satisfied the comic purists without invalidating the events of Iron Man 3. It was a brilliant bit of retroactive continuity that kept Trevor Slattery on the board as a comedic pawn while setting the stage for Wenwu’s eventual debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
🍅 92%
While everyone was busy watching Tom Holland stick the landing as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in Homecoming, what appears to have been a massive piece of world-building was also taking place with the introduction of the Department of Damage Control (DODC).
A construction company that cleans up after superhero battles, in the comics, Homecoming rebranded them as a federal executive department that’s part of a joint venture between the U.S. Government and Stark Industries. After the Battle of New York in 2012, the city originally hired Michael Keaton‘s Adrian Toomes for the cleanup. But then, in swooped Anne Marie Hoag and the DODC, flashing federal badges and ultimately forcing Toomes and his crew into the choice to become weapons dealers.
It’s a brilliant narrative flip for the MCU where organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers are meant to be the “good guys.” Here, the DODC represents the cold, corporate side of heroism. They locked down the alien tech not just to keep people safe, but to hoard it.
The DODC’s debut in Homecoming set a dark precedent. They started as a cleanup crew, but as seen No Way Home and Ms. Marvel, they’ve evolved into a much more aggressive, enforcement-heavy agency.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2022)
🍅 92%
After being dragged out of Seagate Prison by the Ten Rings, presumably to face a gruesome execution at the hands of the real Mandarin, Slattery disappeared from the MCU for nearly a decade. Rather than killing him, Wenwu kept Trevor as a sort of “court jester” to perform Shakespeare recitals whenever the warlord needed entertainment. In a hilarious twist, the terrifying terrorist from Iron Man 3 saved his own skin solely by doing acting improvisations of Macbeth and Planet of the Apes.
He manages to escape from the real Mandarin and from Shang-Chi land, and he flies back into Hollywood to give his career a second chance and to prove to his dear mother Dorothy, who always had faith in him and his talents, that he was truly the actor his mom always hoped he would be and that he always aspired to be.
-Ben Kingsley on Trevor Slattery’s role in Wonder Man
Slattery’s inclusion here isn’t just comic relief; it’s narrative utility. He is the only person who can communicate with Morris, the mythological Dijiang, who knows the safe path through the dangerous bamboo forest to reach Ta Lo. During the final battle against the Soul Eaters, Trevor pulls off his greatest performance yet: playing dead. He survives the chaos by pretending to be a corpse, a meta-commentary on his cowardly nature that somehow ends up saving him.
Trevor sees in Simon a friend, a colleague, but he also sees Simon as someone he can absolutely exploit for his own ends,” Kingsley teases. “It’s quite a classic, basic human condition story. You are associated with somebody and you have an affinity with that person, but at the same time, you know that you’re going to have to exploit that person to get to where you need to be.
-Ben Kingsley
Director Destin Daniel Cretton pulled off a magic trick. He took a character that half the fanbase hated because of the “Mandarin Twist” and made him undeniably lovable. By pairing him with Morris and stripping away the drug-addled malice of Iron Man 3, Slattery became a sympathetic, wholesome uncle figure, setting him up for his role in Wonder Man, which Cretton co-created.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
🍅 93%
Though Spider-Man: Homecoming introduced the DODC as a bureaucratic nuisance, Spider-Man: No Way Home took the gloves off. In No Way Home, the DODC stopped being the janitors and started being the cops. The moment Mysterio outed Peter Parker’s identity, the DODC was on the scene—and not to help. The DODC, led by Arian Moayed’s Agent Cleary, took lead on the investigation, seized Stark Industries’ assets, putting Happy Hogan in legal limbo, and dragged Peter, MJ, Ned, and May into interrogation rooms.
Beginning with No Way Home, the DODC has absorbed massive legal authority regarding “enhanced individuals.” They aren’t just managing the tech anymore; they are managing the people connected to it. The DODC is no longer the “Stark Joint Venture” trying to do good. With Tony gone, the checks and balances seem to have evaporated. They are now a government entity with access to the most dangerous tech on Earth and a mandate to police superheroes without oversight. If you are looking for the bad guys in the post-Endgame world, look no further than the windbreaker-wearing DODC.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
🍅 80%
While She-Hulk was lighter in tone, the implications for the DODC were arguably the most dystopian yet. They aren’t just investigating “enhanced” individuals anymore; they are now the primary jailers of the MCU.
She-Hulk gave us our best look yet at the DODC Supermax Prison. This facility, located in the middle of nowhere, is where they were holding Emil Blonsky. This is a massive shift in power dynamics. A long way from cleaning up rubble, the DODC now manages long-term incarceration for high-threat assets.
Taking it a step further, She-Hulk showed the weaponization of bureaucracy via the inhibitor chip. When Jennifer Walters “hulked out” at the Gala, thanks to Intelligencia’s provocation, the DODC was on the scene instantly to detain her. But they didn’t just lock her up; they forced a plea deal that required her to wear an inhibitor device preventing her transformation.
This is a game-changer for the MCU: the DODC now possesses the legal and technical ability to strip a superhero of their identity. They aren’t just arresting villains; they are regulating heroes. They turned She-Hulk into a monitored civilian with the stroke of a pen.
Ms. Marvel (2022)
🍅 98%
No Way Home and She-Hulk acted as a bridge for the DODC’s portrayal in Ms. Marvel. The aggressive tactics we saw Cleary use against a teenager (Peter) were dialed up to eleven when they went after Kamala Khan. In Ms. Marvel, the DODC officially crossed the line from antagonists to straight-up villains and the Jersey City incident wasn’t just an investigation; it was a witch hunt.
The DODC’s good cop/bad cop bit in Ms. Marvel gave a closer look at the agency’s internal friction. While Agent P. Cleary, represented the bureaucratic, “by the book” side of the agency, Agent Sadie Deever represented the radicalized arm of the DODC—agents who view enhanced individuals not as assets to be managed, but as threats to be neutralized. This dynamic is crucial because it shows the DODC isn’t a monolith; it’s a volatile organization struggling to control its own power.
The most disturbing aspect of the DODC’s role in this series was the targeted harassment of the Muslim community. The DODC is now effectively the MCU’s version of the Sentinel program’s early days—a government body driven by fear and prejudice against the “other” and it’s clear that will be further explored not only in Wonder Man but also in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
About Marvel Television’s Wonder Man:
The eight-episode series is created by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) and Andrew Guest (Community, Hawkeye) and stars Emmy Award winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, who reprises his role as Trevor Slattery following appearances in Iron Man 3, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and All Hail the King.
Aspiring Hollywood actor Simon Williams is struggling to get his career off the ground. During a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery, an actor whose biggest roles may be well behind him, Simon learns legendary director Von Kovak is remaking the superhero film “Wonder Man.” These two actors at opposite ends of their careers doggedly pursue life-changing roles in this film as audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry.
-Official synopsis for Wonder Man
All eight episodes will stream exclusively on Disney+ at 6pm PT January 27.
As part of the Marvel Animation and Marvel Television panel at New York Comic Con, the first teaser for the upcoming eight-episode streaming series Wonder Man was released. The series, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams and Sir Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slatter, follows Williams as the actor “seeks to make his mark in the world of blockbuster Super Hero movies.”
From the minds of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton and Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Andrew Guest, Wonder Man will dive into the entertainment industry and looks to be fairly self-aware. While the main premise revolves around Williams hoping to land the role of Wonder Man in a modern-day remake of a superhero film from his youth, it looks as though it won’t be the only role Williams plays.
As seen in the trailer, Williams will play the role of Professor Harpin in an episode of an in-universe season of American Horror Story.
At the :46 mark of the teaser, a trailer door reveals that Professor Harpin is a character in American Horror Story, as the logo for the popular horror anthology can be seen.
While it’s nothing more than a fun Easter egg, it does indeed canonize the beloved Ryan Murphy series into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, giving it a little touch of reality. Though AHS is an FX Original, Disney acquired the network in its 2019 deal with 21st Century Fox, allowing the show to be included.
“We don’t want it to get swallowed up by people watching Home Alone and Die Hard and Elf,” said Winderbaum of the move, which comes ahead of Marvel Animation and Marvel Television’s appearance at New York Comic Con.
Created by Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, Wonder Man stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Simon Williams and his journey trying to make his way as an actor in Hollywood.
Wonder Man continues to be one of Marvel’s most enigmatic projects. Announced via trade report in June 2022, the series was created by Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest but was never acknowledged by the studio until Marvel Parliament member Stephen Broussard confirmed it was happening in a 2023 interview. Incredibly enough, despite being filmed on location in and around Los Angeles, production began and ended with very few set photos or plot leaks, leaving only rumors and speculation about the show’s true nature and some to believe it only to be a product of the Mandela Effect.
Via Discussing Film, a new in-universe promo for Wonder Man has been released that provides some intriguing new details about the series.
Based on the character of Wonder Man, one of Marvel’s oldest characters, first introduced in 1964 in the pages of Avengers No 9. Known as Simon Williams, a celebrity actor and stuntman. In a nutshell, it is a story of two actors struggling to make it in the Hollywood of the MCU, [asking] the big question what does Hollywood look like in a world where super heroes are real?
-First synopsis for Marvel Television’s Wonder Man
The eight-episode Marvel Spotlight series was heavily influenced by the comics and was described by Winderbaum as a “love letter to Hollywood.” It’s also been rumored to satirize the filmmaking industry and the new promo seems to confirm that.
In it, actor Zlatko Burić is in character as Von Kovak, an MCU in-universe “award-winning director” who is remaking Wonder Man, a classic superhero film.
Award-winning director Von Kovak tells us why his remake of the classic film ‘WONDER MAN’ will be one of the best superhero movies of all time.
“The Wonder Man story spoke to me on a very deep level, there is an opportunity to reimagine a whole genre of storytelling” pic.twitter.com/07dHyETu8W
This all tracks with what little we’ve seen of the project, which included Abdul-Mateen‘s Simon Williams auditioning for Wonder Man. At this point, it seems safe to assume a full first teaser trailer for the project will debut this weekend.
“Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe; you just don’t know it yet.” When Fury, Nicholas J. dropped that bomb on Tony Stark in the MCU’s first-ever post-credit scene in 2008’s Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe took flight. Over the next decade, the MCU expanded in ways nobody could have ever predicted. Through an onslaught of Easter eggs, cameos, name drops and references, the largest interconnected cinematic universe in Hollywood history became so popular that Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson could show up in Ant-Man and everyone in the audience knew who he was….hell, they knew who Ant-Man was! So ingrained in the experience of the MCU was that connectivity that in 2018, Marvel published an MCU guidebook titled “It’s All Connected.” Fans fawned over every fragment of connectivity, theorizing which character might show up where and how each post-credit scene might set up the next big thing. Doctor Strange! Reed Richards! Mephisto! But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the Multiverse.
With the dawn of Disney Plus, the rate of expansion of the MCU increased. New, unfamiliar characters were introduced, causing a sense of disorder and uncertainty among fans. Entropic chaos ensued. Once the strength of the franchise, the MCU’s connectivity–along with a few less-than-successful projects–quickly threatened to cripple it. As Bob Iger returned to Disney, Marvel’s top creatives began to formulate a response to the dilemma and by the time Echo debuted on Hulu and Disney Plus in January 2024 and fans were introduced to the Marvel Spotlight banner, the studio’s solution began to become clear: the MCU would no longer be all connected but rather, through a series of moves behind the scenes, become à la carte.
Marvel Studios is now–at least in part–reborn. As the studio forges ahead through its uneven Multiverse Saga, fans will find themselves on more of a choose your own adventure journey that Marvel hopes will help keep attracting new viewers. Following Echo, X-Men ’97 became the first production to debut under the new Marvel Animation banner. This Fall, Agatha All Along will mark the debut of the resurrected Marvel Television banner. The hope, according to Marvel’s head of streaming, television and animation, Brad Winderbaum, “is to “signal to the general audience that we’re creating a lot of options, and you can follow your tastes within this brand.”
There was a lot of pressure post-‘Avengers: Endgame’ on the public to feel obligated to watch absolutely everything in order to watch anything. Part of the rebranding was a signal to the general audience that we’re creating a lot of options, and you can follow your tastes within this brand. Some will be more comedic, some will be more dramatic, some will be animated, some will be live-action. Marvel is more than just one thing — it is actually many different genres that just happened to coexist in a single narrative.
-Brad Winderbaum
Even as the Mutliverse Saga moves ahead, the rebranding does not create different universes within the MCU. That would be messier and increase confusion. Instead, as Winderbaum points out, “the characters still live and breathe in the same universe, but the interconnectivity is not so rigid that you need to watch Project A to understand Project B.” In that sense, the experience, says Winderbaum, should become more akin to that enjoyed by comic book readers who can pick up a Captain America comic without worrying about what’s going on in the most recent run of The Avengers. “The hope is that, like the comics, you can just pop in anywhere and have a satisfying experience. We’re trying to dispel the idea that you need to do any kind of setup work to watch anything else.”
Iger’s return to Disney also came with a mandate that some of the larger studios–Marvel included–pull back a bit on the quantity of their streaming output. According to Winderbaum, that’s something that Marvel Studios had already begun working on. So, in addition to the reduced pressure to watch everything because “it’s all connected”, there’s also a reduction in content which should add up to an increase in quality and, hopefully, a better experience for the audience. “We were already, as of two years ago, adapting our process from being, you know, fill the service as fast as possible no matter what, to a more considered approach,” said Winderbaum. “I really like the idea of two shows a year, especially because we are developing more than we make. We used to treat the shows like the features where we’re gonna make a show and that’s it, we’re going to hit a release date, hell or high water. Well, it’s hard to do for a two hour feature, it’s even harder to do for, six, seven, eight, nine hours. So now we have a more traditional approach.” And so while the studio may have a lot of projects in the pipeline–like the LONG-GESTATING Nova series–there’s no guarantee that they’ll hit D+ soon, if ever; only that if and when they do, they’ll have been carefully curated.
Ultimately, the rebranding changes absolutely nothing for your average MCU superfan. The banner that hits the screen for a few seconds won’t stop the completist from watching everything and criticizing the VFX; however, the strategy behind the rebranding isn’t aimed at those fans but rather at drawing new viewers in without overwhelming them. For a studio that hopes they have a whole lot more stories to tell, that’s the only way to stay in the game for the long haul.
In 1998, Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada teamed up for an absolutely insane eight-episode Daredevil arc published under the Marvel Knights banner. That arc, known as “Guardian Devil”, took Matt Murdock on one hell of a ride that included brief team-ups with Black Widow and Doctor Strange as well as run-ins with Mephisto and Mysterio. Though Mysterio is revealed to be the mastermind behind the series of unfortunate events that befall Matt throughout the eight issues, it’s one of the most dangerous villains in his rogues gallery who does the majority of the damage: Bullseye.
After going on a bit of a murderous rampage, the psycho killer squares off with Daredevil in the Clinton Mission Shelter where Karen Page finds herself involved in their fight. After Bullseye shoots Matt to gain the upper hand, Karen makes a deal to save Matt’s life but–as you’re certainly not shocked to find out–Bullseye reneges and as he’s making his exit takes his kill shot by launching one of Matt’s clubs at his chest. However, the projectile from the man that doesn’t miss found its home in the chest of Karen who sacrificed herself for Matt. It was a tragic and shocking turn of events in 1999’s Daredevil Vol. 2 #5 and now some new details about the roles of some returning characters could hint at it possibly being adapted into Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again.
During a major creative overhaul on Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel Studios made the decision to retcon Marvel Television’s Netflix series into the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. As a result, new showrunner Dario Scardapane and new directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead were able to directly connect the new show to the events of the three seasons of Daredevil. Part of that meant bringing back even more familiar faces from the popular series including Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll and, most recently, Wilson Bethel. If you’ve yet to watch Netflix’s Daredevil, that means Foggy Nelson, Karen Page and Benjamin Pointdexter, aka Bullseye, are now set to appear in Daredevil: Born Again and a pair of reports has indicated that two of those characters are set for a limited role in the series which could portend some seriously bad things.
According to Deadline, Bethel will return as Pointdexter for just three episodes. A separate report by insider Daniel RPK indicated that Woll’s role as Page in the series is limited to just three episodes as well. If you don’t subscribe to coincidence, you might start to think that the two characters’ three-episode appearances might overlap. While it’s highly unlikely that Daredevil: Born Again would adapt “Guardian Devil” in its entirety, it’s possible that the creatives behind it could be brave enough to establish Dex as a major thorn in Matt’s side by having him return as Bullseye and kill Karen. While most fans would likely name Kingpin as Matt’s archnemesis, Bullseye has always been his deadliest enemy. Having a totally unhinged Bullseye take Karen off the board would establish him as a major threat in the MCU and would definitely generate a social media shit storm that might never die down.
Daredevil: Born Again is currently without a release date but some episodes are expected to stream in 2025.
Release slates have never been more fluid than they are now. As productions get up and running again around the world, projects that were supposed to drop in 2024 have already been moved to 2025 and the butterfly effect is in full…effect. Only a crazy person might try to hypothesize when projects might actually see the light of day…so let’s look at one possible Marvel Studios’ release slate for 2026
January: Wonder Man
After a little creative retooling, Wonder Man resumed production in mid-January which means it will likely complete principal photography no later than Summer. With that in mind, it could easily be ready to roll out in 2025 but with Marvel Studios looking to space out their D+series and with very few new streaming projects far enough in development to get in front of cameras anytime soon, we’ve decided to put the Simon Williams solo series here.
Initially revealed to be a streaming series, Armor Wars is now a feature film and the first one on any of our hypothetical calendars to not have a release date set aside by Marvel Studios. That makes this spot as purely hypothetical as it gets. With the news that Marvel Studios’ search for a director is underway, it seems likely that cameras could roll on this one in either late 2024 or early 2025 since the script seems to have been in place for some time. IF that’s the case (that’s the nature of these hypothetical calendars, after all), this one would have no problem making this May 1st date…which was most recently set aside for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
July 24th: Spider-Man 4
Nobody knows it better than me: Sony sets the date for the Spidey movies that they make in collaboration with Marvel Studios. So why are we placing Spidey 4 on one of Marvel Studios’ tentative release dates? Because it seems increasingly likely that Spidey 4 (once believed to be a 2025 film) will be released in 2026 and it also seems increasingly unlikely that Marvel Studios will be able to roll Avengers 5 out in 2026.
September: Vision Quest
Even with Marvel Studios pumping the brakes on their streaming projects while they figure out how to make TV, it does seem Vision Quest is still going to happen. Who is making it and what exactly it will end up looking like are still questions we all have. Originally, it was going to be heavily influenced by Tom King’s excellent 12 issue Vision book but it’s been some time since anyone has had an update. Because this project COULD serve as a sequel to WandaVision and a prequel to the rumored Scarlet Witch solo project, it seems like something the studio would want to make happen and make happen right.
November 6th: Shang-Chi 2
Another project that has yet to be officially given a spot in Marvel Studios Multiverse Saga, Destin Daniel Cretton’sShang-Chi sequel seems like a priority for the studio. Cretton dropped out of Avengers 5 to spend more time preparing this which, hypothetically, could be because the studio wants to roll it out first. Interestingly enough, that’s consistent with info we heard a couple of years ago which makes us inclined to buy it.
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