Marvel's WONDER MAN Almost Didn’t Make It Out of the 2023 Hollywood Strikes

Marvel Studios’ Wonder Man had a much rockier road to the finish line than fans ever realized. During the height of the 2023 Hollywood strikes, the MCU series was quietly in danger of being shut down for good, potentially joining the list of projects that never saw the light of day.

Now, showrunner Andrew Guest is opening up about just how close the show came to becoming a tax write-off.

When the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes brought Hollywood to a grinding halt in 2023, productions across the industry were forced to shut down overnight. In the case of Wonder Man, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

Roughly half the season had already been filmed when work stopped, putting the show in a dangerous limbo. Some projects in similar positions were simply abandoned, and Guest admits that outcome was very much on the table here.

“We were halfway through ours. You know, it could have been a tax write-off for Disney, but I know for a fact that the people who were producing this show, like Brian [Winderbaum] and all of our amazing team there, were fighting their asses off to make sure that we came back and finished this weird, melancholy show. That, you know, was a big, big swing for them.”

That determination from Marvel’s leadership, including Brian Winderbaum, kept the project alive while the industry waited for the strikes to end. Instead of wasting the downtime, Guest and the creative team used the pause to rethink and refine the series.

According to the showrunner, the unexpected break actually helped shape the final product. The team spent the months off the clock “looking, thinking about it internally, and writing pages and pages of notes for when we came back. [They were] thick, but it was helpful in some ways.”

From the start, Wonder Man was designed to be different from the usual Marvel formula. It’s part of Marvel Spotlight, a label meant to give creators more freedom to take risks and focus on character-driven stories. That approach extended to how the series was shot and performed, something director Destin Daniel Cretton leaned into heavily.

“Our pitch really was character first. I think that when people say indie style, it typically is an aesthetic that is created to serve the performers. Because when you don't have a lot of money, that is the big explosions you don't get, your VFX you don't get. But what you can get is capture alive performances that are surprising.”

He continued, “The aesthetic is kind of built around being able to let the actors have as much freedom as you can. And having an environment that can move nimbly.”

That creative freedom also came with some anxiety. Guest admits there were real concerns that a show centered on Hollywood, actors, and the entertainment business might feel too niche or self-referential.

“You know, I think there's a lot of concern often about doing a show about the entertainment industry that it's gonna feel too inside,” he said. “Everybody who works in this town feels like, 'Oh, we get this. We're gonna, we think it's funny. Will the rest of the world understand it?'”

Still, the team pushed forward with a clear focus on universal themes rather than industry in-jokes.

“But I think the approach was to use all the lingo or inside stuff as specificity to create a story about somebody that anyone can relate to, somebody who's got a big dream, who's doing whatever they can to chase it. I feel like that's something that anyone can tap into...the goal was to create a grounded, different kind of show for Marvel.”

Wonder Man follows aspiring actor Simon Williams as he struggles to break through in Hollywood. His life changes after crossing paths with Trevor Slattery, an aging performer whose best days may be behind him.

Together, they chase roles in a new superhero movie from legendary director Von Kovak, giving audiences a rare peek at ambition, insecurity, and survival in the entertainment industry.

What nearly became a casualty of the strikes ended up becoming one of Marvel’s most interesting experiments. Early reactions have been extremely positive. I loved the series, so I think the gamble paid off.

All eight episodes of Wonder Man will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning January 27 at 6pm PT.

Via: Laughing Place