Wonder Man’s second season will be moving away from one of the cornerstones of the Disney+ show’s first installment, specifically regarding one of the show’s main villains from Season 1. Wonder Man unexpectedly became a smash hit on Disney+ and proved to fans that Marvel Studios is still capable of delivering fresh stories with new characters. Luckily, Marvel and Disney have already renewed Wonder Man for Season 2. While fans don't know when it will come out, they do know that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Simon Williams and Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery will be back.
One of the biggest parts of Wonder Man Season 1 was the inclusion of the Department of Damage Control (DODC) as the show’s main villain. Essentially, the DODC followed Simon Williams and investigated him after a series of incidents kept occurring around him. Eventually, the DODC tried to arrest him, and the entire season seemingly became a cat-and-mouse game between the DODC and Simon.
Before Season 1 officially premiered on Disney+, Wonder Man showrunner Andrew Guest spoke exclusively with The Direct about the series. Specifically, The Direct asked Guest about Season 2 (even though Season 2 had not been announced yet), and what could happen between Simon and the DODC since the latter found out about Simon's powers.
Notably, the showrunner revealed that series lead Abdul-Mateen II pointed out that Simon Williams "can't act anymore," since the DODC knows about his powers. Obviously, that would throw a pretty big wrench into the whole dynamic of Wonder Man since it is completely centered around Simon and his acting:
The Direct: I’m curious with 'Wonder Man' itself, what are the long term plans that you guys have discussed? Are there any particular like Season 2 ideas or kind of stories that you would love to be able to tell if you were able to bring these characters back to the screen?
Guest: If we did get the opportunity, I have put some thought into what might happen for Simon Williams. One of the things that happened as we were getting towards filming the end of filming on the finale, Yahya, one day turned to me and he's like, ‘So, Simon can't act anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He's like, ‘Well, the DODC knows that he's got superpowers.’
However, Guest also revealed that he has a plan for Season 2; one that allows the DODC to stay involved in Simon's story while still letting Simon act.
According to Guest, he understands that "the DODC knows" about Simon's powers. However, he mentioned that the DODC might not "want to let everyone else know it." So, Season 2 could feature "a deal to be worked out between Simon and the DODC" that will allow him to keep acting:
"So I was like, ‘Yeah, so the DODC knows it. But maybe they don't want to let everyone else know it. Maybe there's a deal to be worked out between Simon and the DODC, where there's a little trade-off going on.’ We could figure it. We can square this circle, given the opportunity."
Wonder Man's showrunner didn't explicitly state that he would implement this into Season 2, but the fact that he mentioned it means there is a good chance of it happening. Most notably, it would allow the DODC to still be involved in the story, but would also allow Simon to continue acting.
However, if a deal is worked out between Simon and the DODC, that means the DODC will not be the main antagonist of Season 1. As mentioned, it was Season 1's big bad, and the dynamic between Simon and the DODC was one of the strongest elements of the show. Going away from that could mean that Season 2 will look quite a bit different.
Who Will Be Wonder Man Season 2's Villain?
It is hard to imagine anyone other than the DODC as Wonder Man Season 2's main villain. As mentioned, just the dynamic and somewhat rivalry between the department and Simon was a huge part of Season 1's success. It would still make sense for the DODC to be the main villain of Season 2 because, at the end of Season 1, Simon broke Trevor Slattery out of the DODC facility, thus becoming fugitives of the law.
One possibility is that Simon's brother, Eric Williams, could go bad and turn into the Grim Reaper. In Marvel Comics, Eric becomes a supervillain and necromancer known as the Grim Reaper. Eric has ties to an international criminal organization known as the Maggia, so that syndicate could also be featured in Season 2 if Marvel Television wants to go the Eric Williams/Grim Reaper route.
Marvel could always go a different route with Wonder Man Season 2 when it comes to villains. Fans may be introduced to someone entirely new, or someone from a different MCU project could cross over into the Wonder Man series (although that would be a bit of a disappointment).
