All eight episodes of Wonder Man are on Disney+ for your marathon watching pleasure. The show follows Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), an actor who really wants to play a superhero and has super powers. Unfortunately, those powers are a barrier to his dreams. He teams up with Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), a seasoned actor who befriends him. If this guy looks familiar, it’s because you’ve seen Trevor Slattery in the MCU a couple of times. So, let’s track Trevor Slattery’s weird arc in the MCU so far.
Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3 as the Mandarin
We first see Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3, and he appears to be a dangerous terrorist called the Mandarin. He makes videos claiming to be responsible for several bombings, one of which eventually includes Tony Stark’s security chief Happy Hogan. This prompts a PTSD stricken Tony Stark to issue a televised threat to the Mandarin and even reveal his home base. The Mandarin attacks, Tony flees his house, and teams up with Rhodey to locate the Mandarin.
They discover that the “bombings” were triggered by soldiers whose bodies explosively rejected Extremis treatment, and were falsely attributed by Aldrich Killian’s Advanced Idea Mechanics as a terrorist plot to cover this up. Furthermore, they locate the Mandarin’s home base only to discover that the guy bringing this persona to life is Trevor Slattery, a washed up English actor who has no idea what’s really going on. He’s working for AIM and Killian and getting all the drugs and money his heart could desire. He ends up getting arrested for his involvement and goes to Seagate Prison.
All Hail the King Explores Trevor Slattery’s Time in Prison… and His Escape
All Hail the King is a 2014 direct to video short film that focuses on Trevor and the events that lead to his appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. While incarcerated, Trevor continues to live a pretty good life, even having a butler at his side. He meets a journalist named Jackson Norriss who wants to interview him about the Mandarin events.
Norriss tells Slattery that his portrayal of the Mandarin made a lot of folks unhappy, especially the Ten Rings terrorist group. Ever the oblivious fool, Trevor Slattery didn’t know that Ten Rings existed and learns about the Mandarin and this group from Norriss. The journalist reveals that he’s actually a Ten Rings member and breaks Slattery out of prison so he can meet Norriss’ leader Xu Wenwu. The goal was to kill Slattery at first, but his acting wits lead Wenwu to make him a court jester.
Trevor Slattery in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Slattery’s imprisonment with the Ten Rings collective actually drives him to be sober and get his life together. He even befriends a hundun named Morris. Shang-Chi and Xialing help Slattery escape and they travel to Morris’ mystical home of Ta Lo. Slattery stands with Shang-Chi and the village against the Ten Rings in a final showdown.
What Happens to Trevor Slattery in Wonder Man?
Prior to Wonder Man’s release, we knew that Trevor would head back to Hollywood in hopes of getting a second chance in entertainment. But, considering he was broken out of prison, that would be rather hard. And it did lead to some problems for Trev. In the first episode, Simon meets Trevor Slattery at the movies after asking him to pipe down. He’s admittedly a fan of Trevor’s work beyond his Mandarin role, and even asks Trevor what he’s auditioning for next. Trevor reveals that it’s for a Wonder Man reboot film, and Simon finds a way to finagle his way into the audition in hopes of nabbing what he thinks is his dream job.
He runs into Slattery, who helps him get out of his head and calm down enough to have a solid audition. They go out for a quick drink and exchange information. However, we discover that Trevor Slattery meeting Simon is by design, and that someone knows about Simon’s secret and wants to get him in custody. The following episode goes back to when Trevor arrives back in the USA to try to continue his career. He reveals that he’s been sober for 13 years and simply wants to make his late mother proud.
However, he’s quickly detained by the FBI because he obviously didn’t finish his prison sentence. He is given two options: go back to prison or do some work for the Department of Damage Control (DDC) and earn his freedom. He chooses the second option and quickly surmises that to bait Simon Williams in, he will have to do a real audition that captures Simon’s attention. It’s his job to gather intel about Simon and report it to the DDC. As Simon tries to inch closer to scoring the role of Wonder Man, he begins to hang out with Trevor more and more. Predictably, Trevor gets to know Simon and realizes that he actually likes him and doesn’t want the DDC to get its hands on him.
We also find out more about Trevor, even discovering he lost a lead role in a show partially due to his drug habit and also to a patronizing former co-worker. The duo not only defend each other but they also have great chemistry between them, which actually leads to their casting as Wonder Man and Barnaby. Of course, the DDC is not happy with Trevor dragging his feet and begins to pressure him. A tough New York Times journalist comes to the Wonder Man set to dig into their lives, and things quickly go awry when she brings up Trevor being arrested.
He admits the truth to Simon, which sends the poor guy into a mental spiral and leads to the collapse of a soundstage. Wanting to protect and absolve his friend, Trevor adopts the Mandarin persona again and claims that it was him who caused the collapse. He’s detained at a maximum security prison while Simon is able to finish Wonder Man. It becomes a success, and Simon decides to risk it all to save Trevor. He finds a guy who works as a guard, and literally breaks the bars of Trevor’s cell and flies his friend outta there. Where are they going? What will they do next? Who knows. It is not impossible that we will see Trevor Slattery again but it seems there’s not much else left to explore with his character.
Originally published on January 21, 2026.