This article contains spoilers for Wonder Man!While fans eagerly await the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday, the Marvel Cinematic Universe 2026’s slate has gotten off to a great start with Wonder Man. Starring Yayha Abdull-Mateen II as Simon Williams, the series follows a working actor as he auditions for a role in an upcoming superhero reboot, titled Wonder Man. The series sees Ben Kingsley reprise his role as Trevor Slattery, after previously appearing in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Even though Wonder Man is a Marvel Spotlight series, one that is not focused on the larger connections, allowing viewers to jump in easily, it is still firmly rooted in the franchise’s history and has an important place on the MCU timeline. Across the eight-episode run, Wonder Man features Easter eggs and references to not just the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but wider pop culture, including some very fun, specific ones for Los Angeles residents. Here are the best 10 Easter eggs in Wonder Man.
Wonder Man Costumes
Wonder Man features many references to the character’s various costumes. In the original 1980 Wonder Man movie, the green jumpsuit with the red W and a jetpack is pulled almost directly from West Coast Avengers #12 in September 1986, when Simon Williams asked his film industry friends to make him a new superhero costume. The new, rebooted costume Simon Williams wears in the film is a black sleeveless suit with sunglasses, a near-perfect translation of the costume Wonder Man wore in the West Coast Avengers comics and his late 1990s design.
At the premiere of Wonder Man, Simon Williams is wearing a red jacket and a turtleneck with sunglasses, which is a direct homage to what is called his “safari jacket” that debuted in The Avengers #167 in January 1978 as a more casual superhero suit. The character’s iconic purple design is not shown, though it is hinted at with Simon’s glowing red eyes and purple energy from his hands. Possibly a new look for him to wear in Season 2, if it happens.
The Department of Damage Control
Created in the comics by Dwayne McDuffie and Ernie Colón, Damage Control debuted in Marvel Age Annual #4 in June 1988. In the comics, they were a government branch that helped clean up damage following superhero and supervillain battles. This was essentially the role they filled when they were first introduced in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Yet since then, the organization has become more akin to a homeland security unit, seemingly filling the void left by a government agency that monitors and captures superpowered individuals following S.H.I.E.L.D.’s collapse in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The Department of Damage Control, aka The DODC, has become more concerned about capturing and imprisoning superpowered individuals. They confiscated the E.D.I.T.H. drones from Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home and later used them in Ms. Marvel and were on the scene to capture Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Now, in Wonder Man, they are monitoring Simon Williams and looking to imprison him. Arian Moayed reprises his role as Agent Cleary from Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms. Marvel.
Trevor’s Apartment Ties Into His Past MCU Appearances
Trevor Slattery’s apartment, located at The Talmadge in Koreatown, features many references to Trevor’s past MCU appearances. Not only is his Mandarin costume present, but in the background is a poster for his performance as King Lear. In Iron Man 3, Aldrich Killian said Trevor’s Lear was “the toast of Croydon.”
Trevor Slattery also has a poster for the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Trevor Slattery mentioned how he was a kid when he saw the film with his mother. It inspired him to become an actor, though young Trevor Slattery was mistaken, believing the apes were real, and the “acting” part was them riding the horses.
Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson Exist in the MCU
Wonder Man features plenty of references to various real-world titles from American Horror Story to Sons of Anarchy. It also features guest stars like Mario Lopez and a rather significant role for Josh Gad, both of whom play themselves. However, the two most fun names are people who don’t even appear, as in Wonder Man‘s fifth episode, where a character references Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Nolan is, of course, best known for directing The Dark Knight trilogy, where The Dark Knight opened the same year as Iron Man and The Dark Knight Rises opened the same year as The Avengers. Meanwhile, Nolan and the MCU have an almost accidental connection: Eternals featured a character who witnessed the aftermath of the Atomic Bomb, which was explored in Oppenheimer, while Eyes of Wakanda showed the siege of Troy, ahead of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
As for Paul Thomas Anderson, who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for One Battle After Another, he has actually expressed himself as a Marvel fan. In 2021, while promoting Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson said he “lived in a Marvel-obsessed household” and greatly enjoyed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which notably featured Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery and was directed by Wonder Man’s co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton.
Joe Pantenellio’s Returns To Marvel (In a New Role)
In episode 2, Trevor Slattery takes Simon Williams to do a self-tape at an old friend’s place. That old friend is none other than The Matrix star Joe Pantoliano playing himself. Pantoliano has an impressive resume, including Bad Boys, Memento, The Goonies, The Fugitive, and more. While this might be Pantoliano’s first MCU appearance, it isn’t his first time within the Marvel Universe.
Pantoliano previously played reporter Ben Urich in 2003’s Daredevil. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ben Urich was played by Vondie Curtis-Hall, who was killed off in Season 1. However, Ben Urich’s MCU legacy lives on in his niece, BB Urich, played by Genneya Walton. BB Urich will next be seen in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, which debuts on Mar. 24, 2026, and is the Phase 6 title that debuts after Wonder Man.
Historic Hollywood Movie Theaters (With One MCU Connection)
Given that Wonder Man is set in Los Angeles and is about movies, the series features plenty of famous movie theaters. Simon and Trevor meet at The Highland Park theater, which actually closed in 2024, and one of the final films to play there was the Marvel-related Madame Web. When Simon Williams first goes to see Wonder Man with his dad back, they go to the Eagle Rock Theater, which has since been turned into Vidiots. The Wonder Man premiere is at the Westwood Village Theater, and in one establishing shot, the series spotlights Disney’s own El Capitan Theater.
The most notable theater in Wonder Man is The Chinese Theater, which has its own rocky relationship in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The theater was actually blown up in Iron Man 3, the film that introduced Trevor Slattery to the MCU. It was then shown repaired and functioning in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, where Drax and Mantis pose for pictures to get money while looking for Kevin Bacon. In Wonder Man, Simon stops outside the theater before texting Trevor Slattery in the premiere episode, a fitting connection given the Mandarin “bombing” in Iron Man 3.
The O.C. Theme Song
In the season finale, Wonder Man opens with Phantom Planet’s “California”, best known as the theme song for the hit series The O.C. Apart from being a great song and an excellent needle drop, it actually has multiple meanings for its placement in Wonder Man. In terms of Phantom Planet themselves, the drummer on the song “California” is none other than Jason Schwarztman, who voices The Spot in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and will return in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The band lead singer, Alex Greenwald, dated Captain Marvel star Brie Larson.
The O.C. itself has some significant ties to Marvel Comics. Allan Heinberg, best known for creating The Young Avengers, was a co-executive producer on the series and wrote ten episodes for the season’s critically acclaimed first season. Another writer for The O.C. was Melissa Rosenberg, who later served as the creator and showrunner on Jessica Jones. The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz later went on to develop and executive-produce the adaptation of Marvel’s The Runaways alongside fellow The O.C. writer Stephanie Savage. Chris Pratt, best known for playing Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, also appeared in a major recurring role in The O.C. Season 4.
Doorman
Wonder Man episode 4, “Doorman,” breaks from the series’ traditional set-up as it follows DeMarr Davis / Doorman, the explanation for the Doorman clause, and why Hollywood doesn’t allow superpowered actors. Created by John Byrne, Doorman debuted in West Coast Avengers vol. 2 #46 in July 1989.
In the comics, Doorman is a mutant. The MCU changes that to him getting his powers, the ability to teleport people through the Dark Force dimension, in a lab accident. While originally a bouncer turned part of Josh Gad’s personal team, he is eventually recruited to star in a feature film alongside Gad called Cash Grab. In the in-universe movies, DeMarr Davis character costume is a pared-down recreation of his comic book character’s Doorman super suit.
Roxxon: The Biggest MCU Threat
In one episode, a Roxxon Corporation logo is shown. In the comics, Roxxon Energy Corporation was created by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema (who passed away the day before Wonder Man premiered) in Captain America #180 from September 1974 as a major conglomerate known for employing criminals to forward their profits. They have been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the very beginning, as a Roxxon logo can be seen in the background of Iron Man when Tony Stark and Obidah Stane are fighting.
The Roxxon Corporation was referenced again in Iron Man 3, when Trevor Slattery as The Mandarin “faked” the death of the Roxxon President on live television. It appears Roxxon was working with Aldrich Killian and A.I.M as the film’s climax takes place at a Roxxon facility. The company’s formation was outlined in Agent Carter and has been referenced in MCU series like The Runaways, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Cloak & Dagger, Daredevil, Loki, Echo, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The company’s logo was also recently seen in Captain America: Brave New World. Roxxon might be the biggest threat in the MCU that most audiences don’t even know about, and an Easter egg that connects various titles.
Explicit Connection to Plot Lines from ‘Agent Carter’ and ‘Cloak & Dagger’
The biggest MCU Easter egg in Wonder Man ties back not to a feature film, but two older Marvel Television shows whose MCU status is unclear. With the MCU Doorman not a mutant, the series decides he got his powers from a strange substance leaking from a Roxxon company trash bin. The substance itself appears to be Dark Force energy, which was explored in both Agent Carter Season 2 and Cloak and Dagger.
Agent Carter is seemingly MCU canon, as the series was developed by MCU screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, with the Russo brothers directing the pilot. James D’Arcy, who played Edwin Jarvis on Agent Carter and was designed to be the inspiration for Tony Stark’s A.I. assistant J.A.R.V.I.S., appeared in Avengers: Endgame, seemingly making the series MCU canon. Season 2, which notably took place in Los Angeles like Wonder Man, in the 1940s, revolved around Roxxon tapping into Dark Force energy.
This plot thread was picked up in the critically praised and unappreciated Cloak & Dagger series, which ran on Freeform from 2018 to 2019. In the series premiere episode, a Roxxon Gulf platform off the coast of New Orleans explodes and causes young Tandy Bowen (Dagger) and Tyronne Johnson (Cloak) to crash into the water, giving them superpowers. Cloak’s powers allow him to tap into the Dark Force, similar to Doorman. Did Wonder Man’s slight change to Doorman’s origins bring back long-dangling plot threads from two pre-Disney+ MCU series, allowing them to become canon once again? It is entirely possible and feels like a good starting point for Season 2.
- Release Date
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January 27, 2026
- Network
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Disney+
- Writers
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Andrew Guest
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