Marvel Studios devised the perfect marketing strategy for its first release of 2026, Wonder Man. The new series from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is set to poke fun at the apparatus of Hollywood as well as the superhero movie-making machine that Marvel is such a big part of.
Thanks to the meta nature of the series, which follows Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Simon Williams (a fledgling actor in Hollywood going out for a role in the latest superhero movie reboot), Marvel has been able to have some fun with its promotion of the series. This has, of course, included the typical teasers, promos, and trailers (read more about the Wonder Man trailer here). Still, it has also brought some unorthodox fare that hilariously tees up the super-powered streaming journey to come.
The latest addition to this meta wave of Marvel marketing is a new text activation, allowing audiences to 'directly interact' with Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery (or at least a digital facsimile of him). By texting "ACT" to 805-8-TREVOR (805-887-3867), fans can enroll in what has been dubbed "The Slattery Method" (a tongue-in-cheek play on the uber-popular Masterclass).
Once on the "Slattery Method" list, the Wonder Man character will begin texting you his signature tricks of the trade. This includes unique voice notes, such as his most recent one, teaching subscribers how to cry on command:
"Real tears can't be faked. To cry for a scene, you must go to the darkest place you can imagine. I simply think of something tragic, and the waterworks begin. In fact, tears are not water; they're liquid applause. Every drop says, 'Look at me, I'm feeling.'"
Along with these various hints for releasing your inner thespian, the number will also keep you up to date on the incoming Disney+ series (due out January 27, 2026) with the latest teasers before they arrive online.
It even comes with its own contact card for the Wonder Man characters, adding even more layers to the meta Slattery Method fun.
This is a fun way for fans to interact with the beloved comic book canon in a new and unique way, blending the line between the real and the fictional. And what better series to launch such an effort with than Wonder Man, a project that is itself a fictional commentary on the very real world of Tinseltown.
The "Slattery Method" does not stop at these texts, however. Kingsley's MCU character has been making the rounds in anticipation of the show's release. Kingsley, as Slattery, started to hit the interview circuit.
He appeared in a particularly giggle-inducing promo for the series with Turner Classic Movies' Ben Mankiewicz, done up to look like a real-life video podcast interview, discussing his method and what it takes to be a grade-A acting Talent. The Bad Actors snippet does not go as planned, though, as all it takes is Mankiewicz bringing up Slattery's past work playing the international terrorist The Mandarin (as seen in Iron Man 3) for the actor to abandon the interview entirely.
Slattery and Williams showed up together in a new 'Actors on Actors'-esque spoof, titled Actors Unscripted, riffing on the online videos that see multiple A-list Hollywood talents interviewing one another in a free-flowing conversation. Of course, in this particular promo, things do not go as expected, as the pair begins jumping from one viral interview format to another.
This is on top of the various in-character red carpet appearances that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has done in anticipation of the series. In July 2025, Mateen popped up at the premiere for Fantastic Four: First Steps fully in-character as Simon Williams, recalling "seeing the first [Wonder Man] movie in the theaters with his father:"
"I grew up a really big fan of Wonder Man. A really big fan of comics. It was actually the first movie that I saw in the theaters with my father when I was very young, and that day I left the theater wanting to be a superhero. So, this is amazing. It's actually a very beautiful full-circle moment for me."
The director behind the in-universe Wonder Man film, Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić), has also gotten in on the fun during this lead-up to the launch. He broke down his vision for the movie, which Mateen's character is passionately ready to audition for.
Wonder Man is a unique project, seemingly being as much a commentary on Hollywood as another super-powered adventure featuring another costumed hero. Therefore, it deserves a justifiably unique marketing campaign. If there was a place to experiment, this is it.
