Wonder Man: What the Hell Is Marvel Spotlight Again?

If you fired up Disney+ this week to watch Marvel’s new superhero streaming series, Wonder Man, you may have noticed that it’s been released under the “Marvel Spotlight” banner. You may also be forgiven for not knowing what that is or why it’s even a significant move from Marvel Studios, which has released so many other MCU streaming series like Loki, Ms Marvel, and Moon Knight under the standard Marvel fanfare.

The studio officially launched Marvel Spotlight back in January 2023 with its Alaqua Cox-led Hawkeye spinoff series, Echo. Months prior, Marvel’s Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum had declared Spotlight a platform “to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen,” and stated that Echo focused on “street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity.”

While that was somewhat true, Echo’s story and her ongoing beef with the villainous Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) did immediately follow on from Hawkeye’s series finale, so there was MCU homework available to anyone who wanted to do some. However, Wonder Man features a brand-new MCU character that requires viewers to do zero homework, albeit one paired with a more familiar character who has made several MCU appearances to date: Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery, a washed-up actor who has been more of a joke than an essential cog in the MCU machine.

Like most things in the MCU, the idea behind Marvel Spotlight TV has its roots in Marvel Comics, starting off as the name of a comic book anthology series in the early 1970s when Stan Lee had moved from editor to publisher. The idea behind Marvel Spotlight was that they could “try out” characters there and see if they worked before deciding whether to launch their own solo series. Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, and Spider-Woman were all introduced in Marvel Spotlight and later got their own titles after proving popular.

So, while the idea behind Marvel Spotlight shows is that you don’t need to be as involved in the MCU to understand them (as opposed to something like Loki or What If…?), we could also view them as Marvel “trying out” these characters to see if they’re popular enough to gain any MCU traction.

“Hopefully, people fall in love with Simon Williams, and he can continue to live on,” said Wonder Man showrunner Andrew Guest when asked about the character’s future, while Winderbaum noted that Wonder Man season 2 could be “on the table” but only “if people watch.”

Yep, that sounds like Marvel Spotlight alright.