'Wonder Man' brings in a 'Daredevil' 2003 star, but not in a way we all thought
Instead of choosing to feature the protagonist against a dazzling heroic backdrop, 'Wonder Man' took the opposite approach, developing Yahya Abdul Mateen II's Simon Williams' story in a remarkably grounded, realistic fashion. In doing so, the show takes a satirical look at what it means to be a struggling actor in present-day Hollywood. The ethos of 'Wonder Man' wouldn't have been complete without a few surprising cameos from real-life Hollywood stars who have struggled through their days and have gone on to achieve success in the business.
'Wonder Man' follows Williams as an up-and-coming struggling actor who is desperate to land the leading role in an upcoming superhero movie. The meta film-within-a-film format subtly adds to the satire and immediately draws the audience into the action. In a testament to its unexpected narrative turns, 'Wonder Man' features Joe Pantoliano in a surprise cameo appearance, playing a fictionalized version of himself. We see him for the first time on the show's second episode.
Pantoliano's onscreen character is described as someone who has been familiar with Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery for a long time. When Williams and Slattery show up at Pantoliano's grand mansion, the star greets them cordially. Both the struggling actors are vying for a role in the upcoming big-budget film and need a quiet place to record a self-audition tape, and Pantoliano invites them to make themselves at home in his mansion. Nevertheless, one thing leads to another, and Williams soon flies off the handle in response to some career advice from Pantoliano, as described by Slash Film. This ultimately ends with Williams criticizing the film 'Baby's Day Out', declaring, "You suck, Joe Pantoliano. Baby's Day Out is garbage. Even that dumb baby couldn’t make you funny." Williams then storms out of the mansion.
In a surprising turn of events, we also learn that Pantoliano eventually found his way to the film, which both Williams and Slattery had their eyes on. The experienced Hollywood star, leveraging his network and years of experience, ultimately checkmated Slattery by stealing the role in the finished version of the film. Speaking about this at a previous press meet, showrunner Andrew Guest explained that the conclusion of this narrative arc was a deliberate homage to the 1992 Robert Altman classic 'The Player', in which a low-budget artistic film transforms into a star vehicle after passing through the Hollywood Studio system.
Guest remarked, "At the very end (of 'The Player'), we're finally watching that movie ('Habeas Corpus') on the big screen...and it stars Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis. That gag was the inspiration for the final scene in the 'Wonder Man' movie, where we bring Joe Pantoliano back." Elsewhere, in another interview with EW, Guest had highlighted the reason why Pantoliano was cast for the cameo, "The wonderful thing about him is he's got so much to say about (acting and Hollywood). He's written several books. He'll talk your ear off about acting and about his thoughts about why he got into the business and where his love of the craft comes from. And we put all of that in the script, and it's really incredible." 'Wonder Man' is available on Disney+.
