Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Unveils the Secret to ‘Wonder Man’: ‘It Never Starts with the Powers’

The Emmy-winning star of the critically acclaimed Disney+ comedy is protective over his neurotic superhero character: "When he experiences the same thing that everybody else experiences, his body explodes.”

At first shrouded in secrecy, the plot of the Disney+ series “Wonder Man” soon becomes simple enough to understand. Protagonist Simon Williams wants to be a successful actor, but must keep his superpowers a secret in order to do so. But sitting across from series star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II at a conference room inside IndieWire’s Los Angeles office, the Emmy winner becomes most animated when confronting the idea that his characters’ superpowers are the true thing holding Williams back.

“That’s not the secret. Simon’s secret is that he doesn’t actually think that he can do it,” said Abdul-Mateen. “It’s the convenient excuse. ‘Oh, I have these powers, what if my powers break out?’ You’re not worried about the powers. There’s something else going on. Move, move, move. I see you. You don’t believe in yourself. You want to do it, but you have doubts. Oh, you’re afraid. Oh, man, you don’t have to be afraid.”

Given that he shares an occupation with his “Wonder Man” character, there’s a perception that this might have been the type of pep talk he gave himself after choosing to leave the world of architecture and urban planning and try his chances at becoming an actor at the Yale School of Drama. But Adbul-Mateen was quick to clarify that his acting journey has been way different from his Marvel Cinematic Universe character.

“I had a tendency to take up space and to be one of the people in the bunch who was attracted to the light. But that’s really what it was about. It was feeding the thing in me that liked to be the center of attention,” he said, sharing what made him pursue acting in the first place. During his first performance, in a play called “Measure to Measure” staged around 2007 or 2008, he only had two lines (“Eleven, sir” and “Lord Angelo is severe”). The actor remembered feeling a rush of nerves and excitement waiting in the wings, peeking out to see who was in attendance. He turned to ask his friend, actor Daniel Petzold, “‘Is it always like this?’ He said, ‘Every time.’” By the time Abdul-Mateen walked out onstage, “as soon as the light hit, all the nerves went away, and I was right at home,” he said. “Simon doesn’t have that thing to make the nerves go away.”

Often, the best stories about superpowers use them as an extreme manifestation of emotions the characters are already feeling, and “Wonder Man” is no different. “Whereas other people have the ability to hide their doubt or to mask it behind other things, Simon doesn’t have the luxury of doing that,” said the “Watchmen” and “Aquaman” actor. “When he experiences the same thing that everybody else experiences, his body explodes.”

Abdul-Mateen continued, “Simon has to learn how to walk out onto the stage even though his heart is beating on the inside, because when he doesn’t, that’s when he gets in trouble, when he lets the doubt overwhelm him. He’s not having anxiety attacks because he has powers. He’s having anxiety attacks because he has doubts. And when he has doubts, everything boils up. And now he’s worried and then the powers start creeping up and then boom, something happens. But it never starts with the powers.” 

Verging on misty-eyed in his empathic defense of his character, the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy contender added, “He’s just got to live. He’s just got to either continue or quit. So every single time, it’s do or die. It’s do or die. And Simon’s a hero, man. Simon’s so brave going out there and living with that condition. It’s funny, because he’s out there trying to cope, but man, Simon’s terrified the entire time.”

Part of what helped make Simon so personal to Abdul-Mateen was because he was invited by co-creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest to really shape the new take on the Marvel character, who first appeared in “The Avengers” comic over 60 years ago. “When it came to the scripts, the thing that I liked the most was the fact that Andrew Guest and Destin, they talked about the story as if it was a work in progress,” he said. “They made me feel special. They made me feel important when they talked about the script as if it was a work in progress. That let me know that there was going to be a space for me to be seen in this project, that I would have a voice.”

That even extended to the House Eleven10 production company founder being on marketing calls for the series. “I like to be in on the business to know what’s going on and to be helping to make decisions and giving my opinions. And some of the things that we put out are because I was in there having those conversations. I would say, ‘Simon would do it like this. Simon would do it like that.’ So I was in those rooms helping to craft the narrative that we were putting together about this show,” he said.

The marketing for “Wonder Man” gave little indication of what the actual series would be about, instead opting for meta stunts, like Abdul-Mateen showing up to the “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in character, or appearing in an Actors on Actors parody opposite Sir Ben Kingsley as his long-running MCU character Trevor Slattery. While industry insiders applauded the creativity, there was concern from general audiences that “Wonder Man” was another Marvel series on Disney+ that would be “buried.”

“We were fine with what we were giving them because we believed in the project and I think patience is a virtue. And I think we were patient even while people were making a lot of noise. And eventually, the bit of noise was good because the noise made noise and that became some press,” said the series star. “Sometimes you’ve got to sit back and look at that as a sign of saying people are really excited about Yahya in this show. And after all of that, what I will say is that I am thankful to have had people say, ‘Hey, man, you have to look out for our guy,’” he added, in reference to the fans that had it in their head that the studio may have been doing a disservice to his star vehicle.

While Abdul-Mateen does his best to pay attention to feedback and concern from fans, “the fact that we got a Season 2 shows that we did some things right, and it shows that the people who really wanted to make sure that I was being protected in this space, that they did their job in showing up in numbers and making some noise about it. So I felt really loved and supported all around,” he said. “It’s good business to know what people want. It’s better business to know what people want, to give them what they need, and make them think that it’s what they wanted the whole time.”

In terms of what’s next for his “Wonder Man,” “I’ve had no creative conversations yet about Season 2, like zero,” said Abdul-Mateen. “As a fan, I really like the fact that they laid down this foundation of this character, that we know his quirks, that we know what type of anxieties he’s susceptible to, and we’ve got an idea of his character and some of his skills and his dreams. And what’s interesting to me is that we’ve watched him in pursuit of something. We got to see what he wanted. It’s an interesting idea to me to see what he’s going to do with it, because we all know the guy who is behind all of this … we knew you before you were a star. So this can go really good or this can go really bad.”

The actor concluded by once again complimenting his character. “He’s smart, he’s crafty, he’s got a good heart, and we’ve seen him do something good with the fame. I want to know what fame looks like on Simon. If he is a celebrity, I want to know what kind of celebrity he is,” said Abdul-Mateen. “There’s a whole journey, but wherever we go, I’m glad that the people know him, that whenever they meet him again, they feel like they’ve already known him because of the way that we’ve introduced him in the first season.”

“Wonder Man” Season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.