Marvel may have recently found its Wonder Man in Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, but according to a recent report from The Illuminerdi, the studio has its eyes set on another big-named actor for the upcoming series.
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According to their recent report, Marvel Studios is eyeing Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) for a “special role” in the Wonder Man show. It’s unclear exactly what that role might be, but the report speculates that Odenkirk could be a good fit for Neal Saroyan, who acts as Simon Williams’ agent and manager in the comics. It’s also unclear if Marvel Studios will keep the history of Simon Williams (Wonder Man) as a hero that occasionally acts as a stuntman.
Should Odenkirk be cast as an MCU version of Neal Saroyan, it’s possible that he could be kept around for future projects. In later runs of the Wonder Man comics, Saroyan has also been revealed to be a criminal mastermind in his own right, with psychic powers being put on the character in later stories. It remains to be seen what Marvel Studios plans to do, so fans will have to wait for further confirmation before getting too excited.
Marvel has yet to spill more details on the series, but Ben Kingsley is reprising his role as the washed-up actor Trevor Slattery, who made his debut in Iron Man 3 as a fake version of The Mandarin. He then made a surprise return for Shang-Chi.
Wonder Man is one of the oldest characters in Marvel’s long history and was first introduced in 1964 in an early issue of Avengers. The character – named Simon Williams — was created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby and was initially introduced as a supervillain who fought the Avengers.
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In the late 1970s, Wonder Man was turned into a hero and eventually ended up joining the Avengers throughout various iterations of the team. Imbued with “ionic” energy by Baron Zemo, Wonder Man has powers similar to other superheroes, including enhanced strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, and agility.
Throughout his appearances in Marvel comics, he’s also had various ties with characters involved heavily in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Vision and Wanda Maximoff.
