Wonder Man Proves Disney+ Keeps Making the Same MCU Mistake
Wonder Man lands on Disney+ with all eight episodes at once, throwing the streamer’s biggest MCU mistake into sharp relief: a release strategy that snuffs out buzz instead of building it.
Disney+ just dropped all of Marvel Television's Wonder Man in one go, and yeah, I have thoughts. It is a very good show that would have seriously benefited from a weekly rollout. Instead, it is getting tossed into the binge pit where buzz goes to die.
What Wonder Man is actually about
All eight episodes are now streaming. The series comes from Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest and stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man. Ben Kingsley is back as Trevor Slattery, always a fun wildcard.
The setup: Simon is a struggling actor hustling for a break when he crosses paths with Trevor. They catch wind that legendary filmmaker Von Kovak is remaking a superhero movie called Wonder Man, and both men chase roles that could change their careers. It is less capes-and-lasers, more Hollywood satire with an industry peek behind the curtain — and the superhero fireworks are mostly backloaded.
The release strategy that kneecaps it
Disney+ dumped the whole season at once. That might please binge die-hards, but it robs a show like this of the week-to-week conversation that turns something good into an event. The long runway matters, especially when the show leans character and mystery more than nonstop action.
We have seen this play out already
Remember how WandaVision went from curiosity to must-watch? People were skeptical at first — Wanda and Vision were not exactly Marvel's A-list prior to that — and most of the show riffed on sitcoms with a larger puzzle hiding underneath. The weekly release gave it oxygen. By midseason, everyone was theorizing and tuning in every Friday.
- Full-season/batch drops that fizzled fast: Echo hit all at once and vanished from the conversation almost immediately. Ironheart was split into two drops, but within a single week. Eyes of Wakanda also landed in a clump. None of them got a sustained moment.
- Weekly rollouts that stuck: Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 and Agatha All Along rolled out weekly and actually built momentum.
Why is Marvel picking and choosing like this?
No one outside the building seems to know. Is it a confidence thing? Name recognition? Scheduling math? Whatever the logic, it does not make sense here. Wonder Man is good — good enough to grow an audience over two months if you let people discover it and talk about it.
Instead, the whole season arrives at once, and by the time folks catch up, the discourse likely will have moved on to the next shiny thing come February. That is just the reality of how fast streaming churns.
The bottom line
Wonder Man deserved the weekly treatment. Eight episodes, strong cast, a sharp Hollywood angle, and a late-season payoff — textbook candidate for slow-burn word-of-mouth. Dropping it all at once feels like a self-inflicted wound.
Wonder Man is streaming now on Disney+.
Credit where it is due: Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype raised this exact point, and I am right there with him.