{"id":47735,"date":"2026-04-27T08:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=47735"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:16:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:16:44","slug":"wonder-man-started-as-a-joke-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=47735","title":{"rendered":"Wonder Man Started as a Joke Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Comic book filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton originally sold <u>Wonder Man<\/u> as a &#8220;joke pitch&#8221; before it became one of the more successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) shows on Disney+.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: Brand New Day director spoke about the early days of the latest MCU spinoff show during a panel at <u>Deadline Contenders TV<\/u>. Before becoming a director, writer, and executive producer for Wonder Man, he says he helped sell the project \u2013 even if the original pitch wasn\u2019t intended to actually turn into anything.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The idea was born from Cretton\u2019s love for Trevor Slattery, the actor-turned-terrorist played by Ben Kingsley, who appeared in both Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi. He&#8217;s mostly served to deliver a quick gag for MCU watchers in the past, and that\u2019s exactly how his much larger role in Wonder Man came to be.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;The genesis of the idea actually sprouted when we were on the set of Shang Chi and I just loved working with Sir Ben [Kingsley, as Trevor Slattery] and I really loved his character and I really feel like in every movie Trevor Slattery has been such a standout and under utilized,&#8221; Cretton said. &#8220;So I did a joke pitch to my producer Jonathan Schwartz and said &#8216;We should do Trevor Goes To Hollywood.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">He added: &#8220;The joke pitch kind of escalated because [Schwartz], as a joke, made a poster with our art department of Trevor Goes to Hollywood with Trevor Slattery in a convertible and it looked 1980s. And I thought we have to do this show! So that\u2019s how it began.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While the weight the Marvel Disney+ shows have in the MCU is up for debate, they typically serve as a springboard for more recognizable names from across the wide comic book universe. Past entries, for example, have offered an expanded look at characters like Loki and Hawkeye, while others have introduced heroes like Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Wonder Man, however, mostly puts superpowers in the back seat to tell a story of Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Trevor as they try to make it as actors in Hollywood. Despite the change of pace, Wonder Man managed to secure <u>a Season 2 greenlight<\/u> on Disney+ just last month, making it one of only three MCU shows to run past one season.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Wonder Man Images<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2021719738 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Cretton clarified that the joke pitch just so happened to start being kicked around the same time that Marvel started to show interest in bringing Wonder Man to life. It was the combination of the joke pitch with the desire to create a story set in Hollywood that ultimately resulted in the Wonder Man that debuted on Disney+ in January.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;This was a risk creatively for Marvel and I think it was one they reexamined during the strike,&#8221; executive producer Andrew Guest added. &#8220;It\u2019s been this underground project that the people at Marvel believed in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Wonder Man Season 2 currently has no release date. While we wait for news, you can read our <u>8\/10 review<\/u>, where we called the show \u201ca smaller, low-stakes MCU adventure that thrives on the strength of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley\u2019s performances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He&#8217;s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/wonder-man-started-as-an-elaborate-joke-pitch-at-marvel-before-it-found-success-on-disney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comic book filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton originally sold Wonder Man as a &#8220;joke pitch&#8221; before it became one of the more successful Marvel Cinematic Universe&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1149,140,4586,2335],"class_list":["post-47735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-joke","tag-man","tag-pitch","tag-started","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}