WONDER MAN Executive Producer Says the Series Started Out As a Joke Just to Work With Ben Kingsley Again

The first season of the Disney+ series Wonder Man was released by Marvel back in January, and it was a huge hit with fans!

The show follows Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a struggling actor in Hollywood trying to land something meaningful, and Sir Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, the washed-up legend with nothing left to lose.

The humor and personal story it tells were enough to draw people in and captivate them, leaving us all wanting more, but as it turns out, the idea for the series started out as a joke.

In a recent appearance during the Deadline Contenders TV panel, Executive Producer Destin Daniel Cretton explained:

“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. So I did a joke pitch to my producer Jonathan Schwartz and said ‘We should do Trevor Goes To Hollywood.’”

He went on: “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’s how it began.”

EP Destin Daniel Cretton says it all started to come together when he found out there was a similar project in the works.

“Then when we were really pitching the show we found out that Wonder Man was also being developed around what would a show be like in the MC Hollywood. Those two ideas collided and that’s when Andrew [Guest, EP] came in and helped us create the real vibe of the show.”

Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II calls working with Sir Ben Kingsley a “labor of respect.” Sharing what he learned from working with the legendary Academy Award winner:

“Sir Ben told me early on, he said ‘look, the time outside of action and cut is not for us it’s for everybody else. All we get as actors is the time between action and cut and we treated it as sacred and allowed the camera to find what was between us and it was really a pleasure.”

The whole first season of Wonder Man is available to watch on Disney+.