The stars and creators of Wonder Man are sharing the fun alternate ending the series could have had!
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Wonder Man Season 1
The first season of the new MCU series revolved around Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), an aspiring actor taking a role in a superhero movie called Wonder Man. Simon has to hide that he secretly has superpowers, as (thanks to a wild incident involving Josh Grad), meta-powered people are banned from movie sets.
Simon is aided by eccentric actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who’s secretly forced to work for Damage Control to expose Simon. Things came to a head when Simon unleashed his powers in public. To prevent his friend from being arrested, Slattery returned to his villainous persona as the Mandarin and made himself look like the bad guy to protect Simon.
Months later, Simon was on top of the Hollywood world as he seemed to be shadowing someone as research for a role. In reality, Simon was scoping out a guard at the prison, staging a breakout and the season ended with Simon giving up his fame to save Trevor.
It was a strong ending, but speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Abdul-Mateen, Kinglsey and creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest shared that the original ending was going to be a bit less action-driven.
"There was an alternate version where they performed in a black box theater together and levitated off the floor. That's true. But essentially we knew it was always about these two narcissists who, for the first time in their lives, put somebody else in front of their own needs. Simon and Trevor both needed to learn that, and it's hopefully rewarding to watch them do that for the right reasons and because they love each other, essentially.”
As for that play, Guest at first said it was going to be Hamlet, but then added, “There was a version of a play that Sir Ben's character Trevor had written that was not very good that he was going to be doing. And then Simon kind of bails him out and makes it good.”
Cretton added that Trevor would disappear and “then he gets into writing and puts on this play. That would have been cool.”
That ending would have worked, as it would play on Trevor wanting to be respected yet being undermined by his ego and belief that he was more talented than he was. It would also be a tad too low-key, as MCU fans expect some sort of superheroics in their shows, so having this conclude with a stage play would have been a letdown.
The group emphasized that the key aspect of the show was how Simon and Trevor both started out as selfish men and slowly grew as people with a deep respect, turning to friendship. That’s proven by how each was willing to throw away any chance at fame and success to help the other and now both are on the run from the authorities.
The show has yet to be renewed for a second season, although there are hopes with the great critical acclaim for it. While Wonder Man had a good ending, it’s interesting to see what could have been.