It’s impressive to see the sheer volume and quality of genre projects with which actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Trial of The Chicago 7”) has been involved in such a short period. Some of them include Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman” soft-reboot, Michael Bay’s heist thriller “Ambulance,” playing a new incarnation of Morpheus in Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” a major villain in the two “Aquaman” movies from director James Wan, and earning an Emmy award for his performance on the HBO series “Watchmen.” Well, the rising star has nabbed another significant role in a comic book project.
After weeks of a rumor pointing to the actor joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe to play the title character in the upcoming “Wonder Man” series at Disney+, Variety is now backing up the claim. ScreenGeek was the first to reveal the casting tidbit that the actor was in talks for the main part.
READ MORE: ‘Wonder Man’: ‘Shang Chi’ Director Destin Daniel Cretton Is Producing A New Disney+ Series
In the comics, Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, is the son of a wealthy industrialist whose company, Williams Innovations, is run out of business due to competition from Tony Stark’s competing company Stark Industries. He receives powers with the help of Baron Zemo, becoming a villain himself only to eventually turn good, becoming a vital member of The Avengers and West Coast Avengers. It’s unclear how much of the comic book lore will be used in the series as Marvel doesn’t tend to make a one-to-one adaptation for the MCU, and there seems to be a comedic angle to it.
Nathan Fillion (“Slither,” “The Suicide Squad”) was once cast as Williams in a quick “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2” cameo by pal James Gunn, but the role was ultimately cut out of the film. Fillion would later play Wonder Woman in the Hulu stop-motion animation series “M.O.D.O.K.”
Ben Kingsley, previously seen in Shane Black’s “Iron Man 3” and “Shang Chi: The Legend of The Ten Rings” was previously revealed as reprising his Trevor Slattery role in the “Wonder Man series.
The creative team assembled for “Wonder Man” includes head writer Andrew Guest (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Community”) and producer Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings”) as part of Cretton’s overall deal with Marvel Studios and Onyx Collective. There is a chance that Cretton might direct some episodes for the show, but he’s also busy with the big Multiverse event film “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.” Variety says Cretton is also expected to direct “Shang-Chi 2,” but presumably, that’s not for a few years as ‘Kang Dynasty’ is set for 2025 and will occupy an enormous amount of time.