Can you truly be part of a joke when that joke is effectively about the global weariness toward your own company’s decade and a half of pop culture dominance? This intriguing question surfaces with Marvel’s recent teaser for its new Wonder Man series. The preview lightly features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the aspiring superhero actor Simon Williams, but leans heavily into Zlatko Burić—just off a hit film with Marvel’s rival—delivering a tirade about the current fatigue surrounding superhero films.

The teaser is notably bold, focusing on a mock interview with the fictional filmmaker Van Kovak, a renowned yet elusive director who’s inexplicably helming a reboot of the old superhero flick Wonder Man. The actual director behind the scenes is Destin Daniel Cretton of Shang-Chi fame. The trailer throws around quite a few eyebrow-raising comments, presumably sending Marvel’s Kevin Feige reaching for his beloved baseball caps, with lines like, “Why another superhero movie?” “Why bother seeing them in theaters?” and “Everyone is tired of superheroes.” It also features a brief look at Ben Kingsley’s character Trevor Slattery, a fallen actor now playing a villain-hostage, and a peculiarly Vision-less vision board in Kovak’s office, suggesting a blend of traditional heroics with something akin to The Franchise.

While it’s debatable whether it’s feasible for Marvel to engage in such self-referential satire from within its own ranks, it will certainly be interesting to see them attempt it. Wonder Man is slated to premiere on Disney+ in early 2026.