Marvel Delays “Wonder Man” Disney+ Release
At this weekend’s New York Comic-Con, it has been revealed that Disney has delayed the release of the upcoming Marvel live-action series, “Wonder Man” on Disney+, bumping it back into 2026.
The show follows Simon Williams, an actor navigating Hollywood in a world of superheroes, who is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. It will also see Sir Ben Kingsley reprise his role of Trevor Slattery. Also starring in the series are Demetrius Grosse, Ed Harris, Arian Moayed, Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, Byron Bowers, Béchir Sylvain and Manny McCord.
“Wonder Man” is being created by director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings & Spider-Man: Brand New Day) with head writer Andrew Guest (Hawkeye).
A sneak teaser trailer for the show has also been revealed, teasing that the show will be very different to other MCU projects, as it plays with the idea of how Hollywood would deal with the introduction of superheroes.
Earlier this year, Marvel revealed that “Wonder Man” would be released on Disney+ in December 2025; however, now it will arrive a month later in January 2026.
Brad Winderbaum, the head of Marvel TV and animation, revealed in an interview that the show’s release has been delayed to avoid holiday season viewing.
“We don’t want it to get swallowed up by people watching Home Alone and Die Hard and Elf”
In that same interview, Brad was asked how Meta, the new “Wonder Man” series, will be, to which he replied:
It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever been a part of at the studio. I’ll start there. It’s very different than anything the studio’s produced. In terms of how meta it is, without getting into details, it is a show that takes place within the MCU, but it’s a story about Hollywood. And it’s a story about not just Hollywood, I would say it’s a story about acting and the journey of an actor in Hollywood, of having to balance being an artist with making money and very grounded ideas that anyone who came up in Hollywood or in the arts in general can relate to. I certainly could on a very deep level.
We’ve seen a major change with Marvel’s plans for Disney+ shows as they’ve had their budgets drastically reduced after the initial show’s budgets were too high to justify the viewership, in addition to superhero fatigue and a reduction of quality, Brad explained that hopefully “Wonder Man” gets a second season, if enough people watch it.
It’s a different time at Disney+. The original shows were created as limited series with characters that could bounce back and forth between the movies and TV shows. That made it challenging to make season 2s because the deal structure became really expensive, frankly. We then began developing shows that could span multiple seasons.
But there are shows that were caught in the middle. I would put Marvel Zombies on that list, I’d put Wonder Man on that list where we have to see. Season 2s could be on the table if people watch. If it’s the only Wonder Man story, it really stands on its own as a beautiful piece. But I anticipate that when people get to the end of this story, they’re gonna want more. And I hope that’s what happens.
Roger’s Take: It doesn’t come as a massive surprise to me to see “Wonder Man” getting delayed into 2026 (and I wouldn’t be shocked if “Vision Quest” also gets bumped back into 2027, so that we see just two shows released each year. “Wonder Man” looks like it could be a lot of fun, but it also feels like a show that isn’t going to get as much attention as audiences become much more picky about what Marvel projects they watch.
What do you think of “Wonder Man” being delayed? Let me know on social media!
