Much like a superhero, the right casting and star power can pack a powerful punch.
Disney+’s latest Marvel series, Wonder Man, follows struggling actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as he chases his big Hollywood break. Standing in his way are the superpowers he keeps hidden due to an industry rule barring superpowered individuals from working in film and television. Along the way, Simon strikes up an unlikely friendship with Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the actor who famously posed as the terrorist known as the Mandarin in several MCU films. Together, the pair navigate Hollywood while pursuing roles in a remake of the in-universe superhero movie Wonder Man.
In adapting the comics to television, a few physical changes were considered. “We were looking for a character who could be believable as both an actual superhero with these incredible powers, but also a person who had this desire and passion for art, and for expressing himself and for creativity and for finding his place in the world. Yahya was at the top of the list,” casting director Carmen Cuba explains in an interview for Deadline’s The Process.
Upon watching Mateen in Broadway’s Topdog/Underdog, co-creators, showrunners and EPs Andrew Guest and Destin Daniel Cretton were “blown away” by his performance in the show. “When you think about trying to find a person who has the soul of a poet who looks like a superhero and has this kind of range as a performer, it’s a one-of-a-kind situation.” Guest tells Deadline.
Cuba adds: “When Andrew and Destin met with him, they really connected with him as a human and his own pursuit, it just felt like a really good match. [Especially the physicality], because you really do have to believe he’s somebody who can step into the Avengers or any of those existing movies.”
Once the star was set, it was time to pull in actual working actors to play themselves. The eight-episode series is packed with guest-star appearances from Twilight’s Ashley Greene and Access Hollywood’s Mario Lopez to Daily Show writer-comedian X Mayo, The Matrix’s Joe Pantoliano and Frozen’s Josh Gad among many more. Explaining the importance of grabbing actors to play a version of themselves for Wonder Man, Guest explains: “One of the things we wanted to do on the show was to have some real-life actors or actresses playing themselves. It was an interesting process to go through because you don’t know if these people are going to be on board.”
“Joe Pantoliano was a fun one in particular,” Guest says with a laugh. “There was such an opportunity to delve into these character actors who we love and grown up with, who don’t often get the spotlight in the same way. One of the things we wanted to do with Joe’s character was a play on who he is in real life. I mean [in our universe] he’s got the same roles that [real] Joe has, but Joe does not live on the West Coast [like in the show]. And one of the things Joe said [when we gave him this life] is, ‘When my family sees this show, they’re going to think I have so much more money than I actually have.’ ”
Cuba loved that she was tasked to look at local Los Angeles talent for these parts. “We were casting top to bottom and needing good people who could be lead guest. It was amazing to be able to shoot in L.A. and use local actors for all of those parts, from the bigger ones to the smaller ones. It was really personal.”
To learn more about guest-star casting, Caribbean culture casting, Mateen and Kingsley’s relationship building and Gad’s raunchy comedic rendition of “In Summer,” watch the video above.
