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(Warning: Spoilers, obviously)
"Wonder Man" is dropping on Disney+ tonight, and I got a sneak peek at the first two episodes last week at The Hollywood Reporter's "Heat Vision Live" event. The show is incredible (you should absolutely watch it), and there's no shortage of critics willing to tell you the same thing.
One of the best parts of the show is Ben Kingsley's performance as Trevor Slattery. If your brain is made of mashed potatoes like mine, that name might not immediately ring a bell, but understanding how this lovable character ends up as the conflicted mentor of "Wonder Man" will only help you enjoy the show even more.
We first met Trevor all the way back in 2013's "Iron Man 3" as the terrifying head of the Ten Rings, the Mandarin. The movie spent two full acts building him up as a legitimate threat with grainy hostage videos, theatrical menace, and a string of bombings that rattled Tony Stark.
Then Tony finally meets Trevor and thinks he’s a decoy or a double, but as Trevor says, “[he’d] never be an understudy.” The Mandarin is actually just some washed-up, drugged-out British actor being paid in drugs, women, and fortune by Aldrich Killian to read scary lines on camera. The real villain was Killian the whole time, and Trevor just thought he was the scary face in front of some green screens and movie magic. Comics fans who'd waited decades for the real Mandarin were furious.
Looking back, there’s a certain genius in casting an Oscar winner to play a has-been playing a terrorist. Unsurprisingly, claiming you had no idea you were being used as a cover for real terrorism isn’t a good defense in court. He was shipped off to Seagate Prison, and that really could've been the end of his story, but Marvel had other ideas.
"All Hail the King"
If you’re a casual viewer, this is probably the one giant missing puzzle piece. Before we even get to the rest of Trevor’s MCU history, you might already be asking yourself, “How is Trevor just wandering around Los Angeles in ‘Wonder Man’ and not in prison?”
Marvel released a One-Shot in 2014 called “All Hail the King” that addressed fan backlash and set up the next part of Trevor’s story. In it, Trevor's thriving in prison because the inmates treat him like a celebrity, and a documentary filmmaker shows up to interview him about the whole Mandarin hoax.
Trevor happily obliges, sharing his entire backstory and the many career failures that came with it. But, surprise, the filmmaker turns out to be a real Ten Rings operative. And the real Mandarin is pissed. And Trevor is about to meet him. The One-Shot ends with Trevor getting broken out of prison.
"Shang-Chi" and survival through performance
"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" finally delivered what the One-Shot teased. We got Xu Wenwu, the true Mandarin, played by Tony Leung, and we finally learned what happened to poor ol’ Trevor after his kidnapping.
Wenwu kept him alive as entertainment.
The plan was definitely to execute him, but when the moment came, Trevor did the only thing Trevor knew how to do and put on the performance of his life, literally. He recited Macbeth with enough passion that Wenwu's assassins actually found it funny, so instead of killing him, Wenwu made Trevor his personal court jester and forced him to perform weekly for the Ten Rings soldiers. For once, Shakespeare didn’t end in tragedy.
After leading Shang-Chi to Ta Lo with guidance from a faceless little hairy flying thing (I don’t know, go watch the movie), Trevor survives by playing dead. By now, it should be pretty clear that acting isn’t Trevor’s job. Acting is his survival mechanism, so keep that in mind going into "Wonder Man."
"Wonder Man" and the Hollywood comeback
Marvel's Brad Winderbaum is calling "Wonder Man" Trevor's "third act." He's back in LA, he's sober, and he's trying to make it as a legitimate actor for maybe the first time in his life. No cons, no fake terrorist gigs, just an aging performer who wants to prove to his mother Dorothy that he can be "the actor she always hoped he would be."
His partnership with Simon Williams, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is the heart of the whole show. Trevor becomes a mentor figure, showing the younger actor how Hollywood really works, but he has his own ambitions, and things only get messier with the involvement of the Department of Damage Control (that’s all I'll say about that).
And now you’re caught up! I don’t know if Trevor Slattery was ever supposed to matter. I can tell you that “Iron Man 3” and “All Hail the King” were written by the same person. And I can tell you that “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” was directed by the same person who co-created “Wonder Man.” It’s hard to imagine that they’d introduce a fake terrorist with a long-term plan of having him co-star on a superhero show that has a meta take on the Hollywood acting industry. But I also can’t imagine that anyone was in a rush to have Ben Kingsley leave the MCU. Now, go watch the show!
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