Ed Harris is finally confirmed to be following up his casting in Taylor Sheridan’s new Yellowstone series with a long-awaited trip into the MCU. The multiple Oscar nominee has been rumored to be appearing in one of the most interesting upcoming Marvel shows for a long time, but it was only in a recent report from Deadline that he was confirmed to be appearing in Wonder Man on Disney+.
Harris, who has appeared in the HBO hit Westworld as well as Tom Cruise’s juggernaut sequel Top Gun: Maverick, will be playing Neal Saroyan, “a Hollywood agent” who represents Simon Williams aka Wonder Man, in the Marvel series that will close out the studio’s 2025 releases.
Comic book fans who remember the 1990s Wonder Man comic run won’t need to be told that Saroyan starts out as Simon’s slick, manipulative agent but goes on to become an antagonist character connected to the group of assassins known as The Nobility. For everyone else, you have just read it, so now you are up-to-date. Exactly whether this is how Harris’s version of the character plays out is yet to be seen, but as a Marvel show that promises to be something a little different, Wonder Man looks set to be another potential Disney+ hit.
What Do We Know About ‘Wonder Man’?
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams / Wonder Man, a super-powered actor/stuntman working in Hollywood – which explains his need to have an agent and the reason the series also includes the once controversial Trevor Slattery, the actor who pretended to be The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.
The series is created by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye), with Guest as showrunner. Alongside Abdul-Mateen II, Harris and Kingsley, Wonder Man also features Demetrius Grosse (Eric “Grim Reaper” Williams), and Arian Moayed (DODC’s P. Cleary), plus Lauren Glazier and Josh Gad in undisclosed roles. Wonder Man will be released on Disney+ in December.
Wonder Man is part of Phase 6, but mostly sits outside the multiverse storylines that will be coming to a head in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Some have already called it Marvel’s version of the Apple TV+ Emmy-winning series The Studio, with its satirical take on the movie industry being a strong focus, but the series also does not appear to have many connections to the outside MCU – other than the inclusion of a couple of characters like Slattery – meaning that anyone can drop in without having to do their homework first.
Wonder Man is a series that has suffered plenty of production issues, mainly from Hollywood strikes, but it will soon get its time to shine. With a string of award-winners on its cast list, Harris being the latest, perhaps the show will see out Marvel’s year on an unexpected high.
