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The MCU's latest streaming series Wonder Man is all about actor Simon Williams connecting with Trevor Slattery, the infamous thespian known for impersonating the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. That partnership may seem like a natural fit, but the stories of Simon and Trevor as actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe were almost split across two separate projects before being "mixed."
The pairing winds up being a match made in heaven, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Simon Williams) and Ben Kingsley (Trevor Slattery) carrying the entire series through on the strength of their performances and remarkable chemistry.
"This show started with [director Destin Daniel Cretton] and Sir Ben on the set of Shang-Chi, loving working together and wanting to do a show together," Wonder Man writer/co-creator Andrew Young tells GamesRadar+. "Then it sort of mixed with another project at Marvel, about Wonder Man. And when I met with Destin, and they brought this to me, it was designed as a two-hander. So we knew Sir Ben was committed. We knew we had Trevor Slattery. I knew who that character was."
Following Cretton and Kingsley hitting it off on the set of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, in which Slattery is freed from prison by Wen-Wu, the actual basis for his fake Mandarin, the pair closely collaborated to develop Slattery's character arc in Wonder Man as he returns to Los Angeles and forges an unlikely bond with fellow actor Simon Williams.
"I went and met with him in England early on in the process, and sat with him for, I think it was like two or three hours," says Cretton. "I just recorded this interview with him that was talking about his philosophy on acting, his philosophy on performance, and also what he believed could be Trevor's philosophy on acting and performance. And he also just brainstormed a lot of ideas of Trevor's backstory and things that did make it into the show. I think that was the genesis of him wanting to come back to Los Angeles to make his mum proud. And that dialogue with our actors, I think, is really important, and informed so much of what you see in the final product."
All eight episodes of Wonder Man are streaming on Disney Plus starting January 27. For more, check out our review of Wonder Man and stay up to date on all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows currently in the works.
