Positive, it’s perhaps a number of years late, however Marvel’s first teaser trailer for its Marvel Man TV collection actually appears to grasp how exhausted all of us are by the final fifteen-thousand years of superhero movie and TV. It additionally appears correctly implausible.
Marvel Man is definitely one of many extra forgotten heroes of the Silver Age, yet one more Jack Kirby and Stan Lee creation, initially solid as a supervillain for the Avengers to battle in 1964. By the late ’70s and after a bunch of rebirths, he lastly modified his methods and joined the goodies, and has appeared within the comics right here and there ever since. However till now, Simon “Wonder Man” Williams had but to even be a twinkle within the MCU’s eye. He’s about to lastly get his debut in what appears like an especially meta Disney+ present.
The teaser is so meta, in truth, that it solely reveals the person himself in its last second, once we lastly, briefly see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s face. The remainder of the time is usually stuffed with the gloriously bonkers Zlatko Burić as Von Kovak, the director of a Nineteen Seventies Marvel Man film, returning to reinvent the character for a contemporary viewers that has grown weary of superhero fiction. Layers.
We additionally get a glimpse of Sir Ben Kingsley (it’s humorous to recollect he’s a “Sir” when he’s on this ridiculous character) as recurring MCU buffoon Trevor Slattery, however there’s no signal right here of Ed Harris as Williams’ agent, nor of Josh Gad in his secret position. As an alternative we get numerous slightly inexplicable moments, like individuals on the street reacting to what I can solely assume isn’t the interview with Kovak, and a gaggle taking bikini images in entrance of the Hollywood signal. However my very favourite of the fleeting pictures are the recreations of the (fictional) unique Marvel Man film, in superb Technicolor, with crappy alien fits and a clunky spaceship on these over-used sandy rocks in L.A.
The premise of the present is that actor and stuntman Simon Williams is solid to play the brand new model of Marvel Man, however inadvertently positive aspects real superpowers someplace alongside the way in which. It’s been described by its creators as a “love letter to acting,” with its behind-the-scenes perspective on a movie manufacturing providing a meta view of the entire course of. Additionally, Kingsley will get to ham it up greater than ever earlier than.
Sarcastically sufficient, I feel we’re now in such an odd desert of Marvel films that the hero fatigue motif feels ever-so barely off. Captain America: Courageous New World was such a nothing occasion that I truthfully forgot it even received a theatrical launch, and Thunderbolts* felt prefer it was from a wholly completely different franchise. However after Unbelievable 4 and Superman did so effectively this summer season, and didn’t must battle for consideration amongst a dozen different Marvel and DC outings, I’m really feeling prepared for it to all ramp again up once more. Presumably this eight-part TV collection will arrange Marvel Man to be within the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars mega-movies due in 2026 and 2027. Within the meantime, there actually is barely Spider-Man: Courageous New Day to come back earlier than them on the massive display for the MCU.
Even Marvel Man isn’t troubling the present yr, because it’s not arriving on Disney+ till January. And that’s regardless of it having apparently been able to go for few months now.
