Warning: This article contains spoilers about the\u00a0Wonder Man\u00a0season 1 finale, “Yucca Valley.”\n<\/p>\n
Yes, Wonder Man<\/a>‘s finale opening credit sequence is a direct reference to The O.C.<\/a> Come on, how could it not be?!\n<\/p>\n Marvel’s latest TV series borrowed The O.C.’s iconic theme song, “California” by Phantom Planet, at the beginning of episode 8, “Yucca Valley.” Creators Destin Daniel Cretton<\/a> and Andrew Guest, both fans of the early ’00s teen drama that made Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, Mischa Barton, and Rachel Bilson superstars, confirm it was an intentional needle drop.\n<\/p>\n “Particularly the opening credits of The O.C., I remember watching and just thinking was so incredible,” Guest says. “It was a great show and really, I got excited about the idea of using another show’s theme song as our theme song for one episode, because it’s where our credits play.”\n<\/p>\n Guest adds that they used that song with the goal of viewers recognizing it and remembering The O.C. “Hopefully there are some audiences out there who will have their heartstrings pulled as they connect with that theme,” he says.\n<\/p>\n The creators also loved how the lyrics perfectly line up with Simon’s (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II<\/a>) situation at the start of the finale, having just accidentally destroyed the Wonder Man set \u2014 and any chance he had at Hollywood success \u2014 with his no-longer-secret powers.\n<\/p>\n “To me, the theme works because of the placement of it,” Cretton says. “It is almost scoring the facade that this dreamer, in that moment, is never going to reach. That song just has come to represent so much of what the dream of this place feels like, but in that moment, it actually feels really tragic.”\n<\/p>\n Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in ‘Wonder Man’.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Marvel Television<\/p>\n After a flashback to Simon’s childhood when he saw the original Wonder Man in theaters, the finale jumps back to the present as he reels from losing control of his powers on the set of the Wonder Man remake. As Simon drives through Hollywood, the unmistakable opening piano notes of Phantom Planet’s hit that became best known as The O.C.’s theme song start playing.\n<\/p>\n