Cretton on Wonder Man Season 2, Shang-Chi 2
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- Destin Daniel Cretton co-created the Wonder Man Disney+ series with Andrew Guest, conceiving it out of his fascination with Ben Kingsley's acting process for Trevor Slattery in Shang-Chi, and Marvel gave them full creative rein to reimagine the comic character.
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams, a struggling L.A. actor who lands his dream superhero role as Wonder Man without knowing he has actual powers, while Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery — reprising the Iron Man 3/Shang-Chi character — is working with the government to track him down.
- Wonder Man was reshaped after the 2023 strikes paused production, and Cretton says Season 2 is in the works — a rarity for Marvel/Disney+ series, most of which never get renewed.
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings set the all-time Labor Day opening record with $94.6M domestic over four days and a $432.2M worldwide gross, providing the commercial footing for Cretton's confirmed Shang-Chi 2 development.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which Cretton directed for Sony and Marvel Studios and opens July 31, navigated Tom Holland's on-set injury during production, with Cretton declining to detail the impact.
- Cretton framed the next Spider-Man as potentially the franchise finale, telling Crew Call: "Everyone should go to this (movie) as if it's the last Spider-Man."
- Wonder Man's comic lineage informs the show's tone: the original was an industrialist who dies and becomes a zombie, while his 1990s iteration was a Tom Cruise-like actor who did his own stunts — the version the series draws from.
Why it matters: Cretton is now shepherding three major Marvel/Sony properties at once — a rare feat — and his comment that audiences should treat Spider-Man: Brand New Day as 'the last Spider-Man' hints at franchise reinvention, not just promotion. With Shang-Chi having grossed $432.2M worldwide and a Wonder Man Season 2 breaking Marvel/Disney+'s usual one-and-done pattern, Cretton has become Marvel's most multi-threaded creator at a moment when the studio is actively recalibrating its Disney+ strategy.
