Marvel Studios is bringing back one actor from 2003's Daredevil to play a new role in Disney+'s Wonder Man. Over a decade before Charlie Cox became the MCU's Matt Murdock on Netflix, Batman v Superman actor Ben Affleck starred in 20th Century Fox's Daredevil, going toe-to-toe with Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin and Colin Farrell's Bullseye, with some help from Jennifer Garner's Elektra. The pre-MCU legacy was heavily panned and, while a sequel was never made, Garner reprised her role in Elektra, a 2005 spin-off movie.
74-year-old actor Joe Pantoliano is the latest Hollywood veteran to board the MCU hype train in Disney+'s Wonder Man Episode 2, "Self-Tape." But this isn't Joey Pants' first go-round with Marvel, having once featured in Daredevil, meaning the Disney+ series marks the Tinseltown veteran's recasting to this time play himself.
Pantoliano has appeared in Bad Boys, The Matrix, and The Sopranos, but he will likely be best known to Marvel fans for his role in 2003's Daredevil. The now-74-year-old played the investigative reporter Ben Ulrich, who uncovers the Man Without Fear's secret identity but opts to preserve the secret.
Disney+'s acting comedy confirmed that the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio exist in the MCU, along with Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Robert De Niro, and more.
That said, Pantoliano is one of the only actors to appear in the MCU as a fictionalized version of themself, while Frozen star Josh Gad also got to carve out his mark in the MCU forever, running into some trouble with the mutant Doorman.
Interestingly, Wonder Man showrunner Andrew Guest revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the Joey Pants role wasn't actually written for Pantoliano, but the actor "stood out amongst the crop" in a list of the best character actors today:
"We had a list of character actors who are some of the best actors out there who maybe not are household names, but there was such a love from every person at Marvel of so many of these people who've meant so much to so many of us. And Joey just stood out amongst the crop and was the first person we put a call into."
He added how the real-life Pantoliano has "got so much to say" about acting and the Hollywood business, much of which was worked into Wonder Man's script:
"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."
Daredevil was canonized into the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse in 2024 with Deadpool & Wolverine, which brought back the fellow superhero and love interest to Ben Affleck's Matt Murdock, Jennifer Garner's Elektra.
Ultimatelty, Pantoliano only plays a minor role in Wonder Man Episode 2, but has a far more significant part to play in the budding friendship between Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Simon Williams and Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery.
Joe Pantoliano's Role in Wonder Man Explained
Trevor Slattery turns to his co-star on South Shore Hospital, Joe Pantoliano, for help perfecting Simon Williams' audition tape. It doesn't seem their history is exactly a longtime friendship, as the Daredevil star managed to convince the showrunner to kill off Slattery's character, Dr. Jack Kronk, and give him the lead.
That said, Pantoliano seems to remember their history a little differently, noting that Slattery's removal from South Shore Hospital was actually a network decision. Long before the former Mandarin's 13-year sobriety seen in Wonder Man, Slattery was often not showing up to set and, when he did, was "outta [his] mind."
The MCU's Pantoliano comes to blows with Williams over his "condescending" treatment of Slattery. The fictionalized version of the actor clearly has come to see acting as nothing more than a high paying job, funding for his Malibu marble mansion and private chef, who he poached from Matthew McConaughey.
Ultimately, Joey Pants represents Slattery's potential, and the career he could have had if it wasn't for the drugs and alcohol. That only becomes a more sobering reality in Episode 8, "Yecca Valley," when Slattery is fired from Wonder Man after assuming the Mandarin identity again to take the fall for Williams' on-set destruction, as Barnaby is recast with Pantoliano.
