Wonder Man: The Chronicles of Hollywood Hustle

Comics Movie Reviews
Wonder Man: The Chronicles of Hollywood Hustle
By Hervé St-Louis
January 30, 2026 - 12:33

Studios: Marvel
Writer(s): Destin Daniel Cretton, Roja Gashtili, Andrew Guest
Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ben Kingsley, X Mayo, Arian Moayed, Zlatko Buric, Dan Donohue, Kameron J Meadows, Shola Adewusi, Olivia Thirlby, Bechir Sylvain, Demetrius Grosse
Directed by: Andrew Guest, Destin Daniel Cretton, Tiffany Johnson, Stella Meghie, James Ponsoldt
Produced by: Bonnie Muñoz
Running Time: 26-36
Release Date: January 27, 2026
Rating: PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Distributors: Disney +

Simon Williams is an aspiring actor attempting to crack the Hollywood bubble. While, unbeknownst to him, a new friend, actor and former terrorist Trevor Slattery, is spying on him on behalf of the Department of Damage Control (DODC). Simon has dangerous and unstable superpowers, and the DODC wants to contain Simon, or have him work for the US government. Will Simon reach his goal of becoming a major Hollywood actor, playing his childhood hero Wonder Man, or will he be arrested before?

I was pleased with this series, although I did not know what to make of it after binge-watching it. I am a longtime fan of Wonder Man. I’ve followed his trials in the Avengers since the 1980s. I even read his entire 1990s series. I know of his brainwave gifts to the Vision, allowing the synthezoid to have a personality of his own (well, a copy of Simon). I know about the failed love Simon had for Wanda Maximoff in the Avengers, and his disappointment with Vision being the one to claim her love. I know about the weird brotherly relationship between Simon, Vision, and Eric Williams, also known as the villainous Grimm Reaper, who terrorized his younger brother for years, and kept coming back from the dead. I know of how Simon embezzled money from his technology company to fight Iron Man, as he started out as a villain. I know about the experiment Simon went through, at the behest of the Enchantress and Baron Zemo, transforming him into an ionic powerhouse, who could die if he used his powers too much. I also know about how Wonder Man feared death so much, after suffering through that, thanks to his unstable powers. I know about Wonder Man’s transformation from a basic human form that could not fly, into a powered-up energy-based human who could.

None of that was featured in Disney’s Wonder Man streaming series. The only thing that was kept from Simon Williams’s life was his desire to become a Hollywood actor, and his antagonism for his brother, Eric Williams. I am not complaining about this. There was no other way. All of the other threads that shape who Wonder Man is could not work well, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is too far advanced for those storylines to be reprised as in the comics. Tony Stark is dead. Vision and Scarlet Witch’s story played out without any mention of Wonder Man. He did not exist in their universe. Baron Zemon could have played a role in Simon getting his powers, but Marvel decided to do away with all of that and rebuild Simon Williams based on what he had left, and of course, double down on that.

I was expecting a bland series. There have been many lately from Marvel. This was not that. Instead of showing us yet another strong man who can punch anyone and save the day, we got a character study into an actor, using something like method acting, pursuing his goal in life. Having lost the opportunity to feature everything about Wonder Man, Marvel changed things. He’s now of Haitian descent, although the Creole used by his family, and friends in the show were off. The accents were bad, and the pronunciation unintelligible. Haitian creole is a tonal language. What was spoken in Wonder Man was not tonal. It was forced.

However, Simon’s selfishness and willingness to bend the rules to achieve his objectives, as with his embezzling self from the comics, was there, reinterpreted in a different way. He can lie, cheat, and make up stories like the best of them. He could be a villain if he wanted. But he still chose to kind of be a good guy, not because he wants to save the world, but because he cares more about becoming a Hollywood actor.

He tries to repress his feelings and anger as much as possible, although sometimes he forgets and ignores the consequences. That’s why Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery is so important in this series. First, by being there, he resolved a common issue when black actors are the lead. With a strong white actor next to him, the pressure was off for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II who could still shine and demonstrate his acting chops, while not drawing the usual criticism that the show had gone woke, or some stupid thing like that.

The MCU Simon is no longer white. Unlike Luke Cage or the Black Panther, his race does not matter as much, even though we witness his Haitian background quite well. I was wary of Abdul-Mateen because he has been in so many superhero shows already. He has been Dr Manhattan, and Black Manta over at DC. That’s quite a feat. Surely, Marvel could have cast another actor. Well, just like the character he played, Abdul-Mateen proved that he is a great actor, capable of standing next to Kingsley. The chemistry between them was excellent, and it feels that onscreen as well as offscreen, Kingsley was able to draw the best from Abdul-Mateen.

This series lacked action, and that great. It was a slow series, a bit like the Eternals. I applaud the fact that producer Kevin Feige was willing to take a risk with this series, after staying close to the Marvel formula, following the failure of the Eternals. I also noticed that some events in the MCU are no longer mentioned outright. For example, the blip is no longer a plot device. Thanos is no longer mentioned. We could have expected the white Vision to show up in that series, but he did not. Besides Trevor Slattery, there are no strong ties to the rest of the MCU, and for now, that is just fine.

For some reason, I thought that Doorman was Flatman. Upon verification, both are Great Lake Avengers, which could explain why I thought that they were related., Doorman’s story was great, simple, and used a minor character no one cares about. While the episode was great, the photography was not. The black and white look was too polished and clean, not gritty enough.
Rating: 8.5/10