Wonder Man just made Robert Downey Jr. MCU canon

New Disney+ series Wonder Man is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so there are plenty of Easter eggs hidden throughout, including one that contradicts canon.

Wonder Man is a Marvel show that’s less concerned with comic book thrills, and more focused on sending up Hollywood and the movie industry.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays struggling actor Simon Williams, who makes it his mission to play the title character in a new Wonder Man movie.

Dexerto’s Jacqui Faiman spoke to showrunner and Wonder Man co-creator Andrew Guest about that approach to the material, and he revealed some celluloid Easter eggs to look out for towards the end of the series, including a particularly confusing reference. Meaning MILD SPOILERS ahead…

Robert Downey Jr. is now a character in the MCU

Marvel

Wonder Man is filled with film references, one of which breaks with Marvel logic due to the presence of a certain Iron Man actor, as Andrew Guest explains:

“The man thing that makes doing this show very complicated is that it’s very hard to find people who have not already been in a Marvel project, or are about to be in a Marvel project, or have worked on another thing that tangentially we’re going to reference in dialogue. We had one of those slip in.

“We reference Igby Goes Down, which has Robert Downey Jr. in it, and somebody caught me on that, and I was like ‘Oh sh*t, I forgot that, good catch.’ But I will say that it’s hard – the MCU has spanned so many years and cast so many incredible people that it’s hard to find people with no overlap.”

Two more Easter eggs to look out for in Wonder Man

Disney/Marvel

As for interconnectivity in the show, Guest says: “The interesting thing about this series is there’s more movie Easter eggs than Marvel Easter egg. There’s little homages and tips of hats to famous movies or inspirations in this series, and I hope that people start looking for them, because those are the really fun ones to find.”

Then getting more specific, Guest adds: “There’s a Shawshank Redemption homage shot towards the end. There’s a moment in the finale that pays homage to The Player, a movie I love – the finale of that movie plays into this one. So little things like that.”

For more celeb interviews, head to our dedicated ScreenTime YouTube channel, while if you like Wonder Man, here’s details of what happened to Josh Gad’s character, news about a potential Season 2 storyline, and our two-star Wonder Man review.

As for superhero stuff, we’ve also got every Marvel show ranked from worst to best, our ranking of every MCU movie, and a list of every upcoming Marvel movie and show.