In July, Wonder Man star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II showed up to the premiere of Fantastic Four: First Steps, answering questions on the blue carpet. Normally, it wouldn’t turn heads for a Marvel star to come out to support one of the studio’s other titles. But in a first for Marvel, Abdul-Mateen II was not there as himself, but rather in character as Simon Williams to discuss the fictional Wonder Man movie that is central to season one of the Disney+ show.
“That was a tone setting exercise,” says Ryan Stankevich, marketing brand lead for Marvel and Disney. “It was a signal to the audience that this was something different.”
Indeed, Wonder Man, which bowed all eight episodes on Jan. 27, has been hailed for departing from superhero conventions. It’s full of entertainment industry references and real-life Hollywood landmarks, and even has actors like Josh Gad and Joe Pantoliano playing themselves.
The marketing campaign needed to be meta as well. So, when it came to the first poster, the marketing team wanted to create a cover from an “iconic industry outlet” (Stankevich’s words, not mine) and settled on The Hollywood Reporter. “We could always do a fake industry trade, but that’s not as fun,” she notes. “If we’re really going to lean into the meta nature of the campaign and lean into the Hollywood nature of everything, we should have a real Hollywood Reporter.”
They created the fake THR cover, not thinking they’d get approval, but the powers that be at THR gave their blessing. Timed to New York Comic Con, the poster appeared, along with the trailer.
More meta moments followed.
The show’s fictional, Oscar-winning director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić) announced the Wonder Man movie on the popular X account Discussing Film, with the clip racking up more than 2 million views.
Wonder Man star Sir Ben Kingsley appeared in character as Trevor Slattery, the actor and reformed terrorism figure, via a series of clips, including one in which he stormed out of an interview with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, while Simon and Trevor appeared together in a video lampooning the viral-focused press tours that actors must embark on these days. It was all captured during a single day in New York, the first time Marvel had done such a thing.
“You need actors that are willing, who lean in and are excited,” says Stankevich. “They loved the show, and they understood exactly what we were trying to do.”
As the show approached its launch date, Disney went broad, buying time in the big sporting events you’d expect, from College Bowl Games to the NBA, NHL and the Premier League. But it also kept its offbeat ideas flowing too.
The meta nature of Wonder Man extended to how it was shot, one of the rare shows filmed on location in Los Angeles these days. To highlight that, the team partnered with Starline Tours for a bus tour of filming locations, and used it to bring a group of influencers to the Hollywood premiere. (The bus itself also went into rotation for the general public.)
The campaign has continued beyond the premiere, with cheeky references to Gad going missing in the fan-favorite episode “Doorman,” and today, with a vintage trailer for the fictional Wonder Man film released.
For Stankevich, one of the campaigns that continues to pay dividends is a text message campaign in which people could Text “ACT” to 805-8-TREVOR (805-887-3867) to sign up for tips from Slatterly.
“Ben recorded weeks’ worth of acting tips. I’m still getting text messages from Trevor Slatterly explaining the craft,” Stankevich says with a laugh.
