{"id":433145,"date":"2026-01-27T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433145\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:30:08","slug":"wonder-man-adds-5-new-marvel-characters-to-the-mcu-2-returning-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433145\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonder Man Adds 5 New Marvel Characters to the MCU (& 2 Returning Ones)"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 will be a huge year for the MCU<\/a>, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday likely to trouble the billion-dollar bracket by year\u2019s end. But before we get to the tentpoles, the first MCU release of 2026 is Wonder Man<\/a>, the smaller and radically different series from Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. Starring comic book adaptation veteran Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, it\u2019s a strange bird of a release<\/a>, under Marvel\u2019s Spotlight banner (meaning less outright links to the rest of the franchise), but still very aware of its place in the sprawling series. And along with a cast of new and freshly created characters, it brings seven Marvel Comics characters to the MCU<\/a> (two of whom we\u2019ve met before). Here\u2019s the roll-call of Wonder Man\u2018s cast\u2026<\/p>\n

Wonder Man\u2019s Returning MCU Characters<\/p>\n

\"Agent<\/p>\n

Trevor Slattery \u2013 Sir Ben Kingsley<\/p>\n

Appearing for his third main appearance (fourth, including the All Hail the King One-Shot short), Sir Ben Kingsley revives his role as Trevor Slattery, the actor who infamously played Aldrich Killian\u2019s fake Mandarin in Iron Man 3. He subsequently returned in Shang-Chi, after being broken out of prison in All Hail the King by the real Mandarin. Confusingly, he chose to stay in Ta Lo at the end of that movie, but apparently found life with furry new sidekick Morris less of a draw as time passed, returning to the US.<\/p>\n

Trevor strikes up a friendship with Simon Williams when they both audition for the Wonder Man remake and is the conduit for a lot of the show\u2019s meta jokes about the Hollywood machine. Acting legend Sir Ben Kingsley is, once more, on charming form.<\/p>\n

Agent P. Cleary \u2013 Arian Moayed<\/p>\n

Having previously appeared in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms Marvel, Arian Moayed\u2019s now-beleaguered agent is the MCU\u2019s most recognizable representative of the Department of Damage Control. While the Sokovia Accords are no more, the DODC<\/a> still monitors and seeks to regulate superpowered individuals at a street level, enforcing laws as they exist. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, Cleary sets his sights on exposing Simon Williams as a superpowered individual.<\/p>\n

Wonder Man\u2019s Marvel Comics Characters<\/p>\n

\"Wonder<\/p>\n

Simon Williams \u2013 Yahya Adbul-Mateen II<\/p>\n

Wonder Man\u2019s leading man is Simon William (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II), a jobbing (and distinctly unsuccessful) actor looking for his breakthrough, but struggling with the weight of his own hubris. He\u2019s also a Marvel Comics superhero, having debuted in the 1960s \u2013 albeit rewritten and retold quite markedly. His powers \u2013 which are barely on-show in this series, by design \u2013 seem to be the same, and his acting profession is from the comics, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

In the comics, Simon is killed and resurrected, via a confusing period where his brain patterns were used to create Vision, then took up an interest in acting, thanks in part to MU newcomer Hercules. His is one of the least conventional Avengers stories of all, so it\u2019s somewhat fitting that Yahya Adbul-Mateen II\u2019s version is also a bit of an oddball MCU \u201chero\u201d. The actor, of course, previously played Black Manta in the DCEU\u2019s Aquaman movies, and Dr Manhattan in HBO\u2019s Watchmen remake series. The young version of Simon seen in various flashbacks is played by Kameron J Meadows.<\/p>\n

Eric Williams \u2013 Demetrius Grosse<\/p>\n

In Marvel Comics, Eric Williams was an Avengers-level villain and necromancer, better known by his alias Grim Reaper. As with the MCU show, he was also Simon Williams\u2019 brother, who helped Simon in his original plan for vengeance against Tony Stark and Stark Industries, but who became the supervillain when Simon died protecting the Avengers. <\/p>\n

In the MCU, Eric shows no sign of superpowers, and his backstory is a lot more mundane, but he does have a fair amount of sibling tension with his younger brother, who he sees as wasting his life acting. Erci is played by veteran TV star Demetrius Grosse, who has appeared notably in the likes of The Rookie, Heroes, Westworld, Justified, and Banshee.<\/p>\n

Martha Williams \u2013 Shola Adewusi<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s enthusiastic and loving mother Martha, is played by British actress Shola Adewusi, who you might recognize from a small role in Paddington 2 and Bob Hearts Abishola. She\u2019s a fairly comedic presence in the background of the show, and both she and her husband, Sanford, were characters in the Wonder Man comics.<\/p>\n

Sanford Williams \u2013 B\u00e9chir Sylvain<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s father, who only appears in flashback and was key to Simon\u2019s early love of film (and his desire to succeed as an actor). He\u2019s dead by the time of Wonder Man\u2018s events and is played by Haitian-American actor B\u00e9chir Sylvain, who most recently appeared as doomed mercenary LeClerc in Jurassic World: Rebirth.<\/p>\n

DeMarr \u201cDoorman\u201d Davis \u2013 Byron Bowers<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a degree of secrecy around DeMarr Davis, but without going into any spoilers, this version of the Marvel Comics mutant \u2013 and Great Lakes Avengers member \u2013 is the reason why Hollywood won\u2019t employ superpowered individuals. He stars in the series\u2019 best episode \u2013 a bottle episode flashback shot in black and white. He\u2019s played by comedian and former The Eric Andre Show star Byron Bowers.<\/p>\n

In the comics, Doorman can teleport people or objects through solid matter using his body as a portal through the Darkforce dimension. Somewhat reluctantly sidelined on the Great Lakes team, Davis expresses his embarrassment at times. He was killed off at one point and resurrected as Angel of Death by Oblivion with a power boost.<\/p>\n

Wonder Man\u2019s Key Supporting Characters<\/p>\n

\"Von<\/p>\n

Janelle Jackson \u2013 X Mayo: Comedian and The Daily Show staff writer X Mayo plays Simon\u2019s occasionally unscrupulous, and perpetually exhausted agent Janelle Jackson.<\/p>\n

Von Kovak \u2013 Zlatko Buric: The eccentric director of the Wonder Man remake is played by Buric, who most notably played corrupt Boravian president Vasil Ghurkos in James Gunn\u2019s Superman last year. He\u2019s a walking, talking parody of award-winning auteurs supposedly slumming it with comic book movies.<\/p>\n

Frank Preminger \u2013 Jon Abrahams: Scary Movie series veteran Jon Abrahams plays DeMarr Davis\u2019 agent in the excellent Doorman episode.<\/p>\n

Wonder Man\u2019s Real World Cameos<\/p>\n

Josh Gad \u2013 Gad appears as a caricatured version of himself, who adores the lime light, and parties a little hard.<\/p>\n

Joe Pantoliano \u2013 an exceptionally funny cameo by Pantoliano (as himself) bookends the series. He\u2019s a former friend and colleague of Trevor.<\/p>\n

Mario Lopez \u2013 the Access Hollywood host appears as himself hosting industry dirtrag show \u201cHot Goss\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ashley Greene \u2013 the Twilight series actor appears as herself in the first episode as a co-star of Simon on American Horror Story.<\/p>\n

All 8 episodes of Wonder Man release on Tuesday, January 27 on Disney+, starting at 9pm ET. Are you looking forward to it? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 will be a huge year for the MCU, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,125058,15077,206,125059],"class_list":["post-433145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-list-feature","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-movies","tag-wonder-man-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}