Wonder Man gets a second season

[brightknightie]

Disney/Marvel has renewed Wonder Man for a second season! Here's the Variety article.

I'm excited. I found Wonder Man objectively the best-crafted Marvel TV since WandaVision, with Loki its only real competition. It's a story of the daring of friendship and of becoming a better version of yourself. Somehow, the corporate bosses actually let Cretton and Guest seize on the angle of a super-powered protagonist living an ordinary life in the MCU. There's no fuss here about street level vs cosmic level storytelling, multiverses, or macguffins. This tale is of two actors at different points in their lives. One happens to have superpowers (up-and-comer Simon Williams, played by Yahya Abdul Mateen II) and one was once hired to play a supervillain (washed-up Trevor Slattery, played by Ben Kingsley).

Of course I went in with my head full of comics canon (so much canon), but happily all of that was exquisitely reimagined and rendered gently moot. TV viewers need never know any of it, yet comics readers were not disrespected for knowing and caring about it. Delicate work skillfully done by this creative team.

Comments

[senmut]

I was so pleased to see Trevor get his arc. A bit more of a total, if frail, package when you put the WM arc against the beginning in IM and reappearance in Shang-Chi.

Trevor Slattery

[brightknightie]

Wonder Man made the Trevor character fully rounded, respectable, and fascinating for me in ways that did not at all exist before. In Shang-Chi, I personally saw him as just a comedy foil band-aid over the cultural/storytelling missteps in Iron Man 2, which was fine, but... What the WM team did with and for the character is thoroughly excellent work by all involved.

[sholio]

Oh, that is good news, and very unexpected! I'm a little wary because season one was so weird, interesting, and unique, but even if things go sideways with season two, the first season will always still be there, and I really like the idea of getting more.

[brightknightie]

Yes, it will be very difficult to follow up this tightly conceived limited series! Fingers crossed. If the creators can imagine the next beginning-middle-end arc in the characters' careers, friendship, and self-conceptions, I will be very pleased.

There will be a temptation, doubtless, to deploy Erik as the villain. (Grim Reaper is right there.) But I think they recognize their niche, as long as TPTB let them continue in it. They can make Erik the antagonist without crossing that line.