SPOILER ALERT! This story discusses all eight episodes of the new Marvel series Wonder Man. The entire season is available to stream now with a Disney+ subscription.
There are several highly-anticipated upcoming Marvel movies hitting theaters this year, but thankfully fans don’t have to wait until this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day for their next MCU fix. Wonder Man hit the 2026 TV schedule this week starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley, and not only was I captivated by its fun meta story and MCU bromance, but I was taken aback by two all-time great cameos — especially one that made brilliant use of Marvel’s Disney connections.
Wonder Man centers on Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a superpowered actor who’s desperate to win the titular role of the in-series remake of Wonder Man, and Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who is also up for a part in the movie, but has ulterior motives in helping Simon. Critics praised these performances — and I agree they were great — but I daresay Josh Gad and Joe Pantoliano threatened to steal the show by playing exaggerated versions of themselves.
Josh Gad Brought Big Humor And Huge Stakes To The World Of Wonder Man
Marvel has slipped some amazing cameos into its films over the years (you may have even needed a rewatch to catch all the surprise appearances in Deadpool & Wolverine) but it’s hard to picture many hitting as hard as Josh Gad and “Joey Pants.” This is especially true with Wonder Man falling under the Marvel Spotlight banner, meaning you don’t have to have watched every MCU movie in order to understand the joke.
Josh Gad appears in the series’ fourth chapter, “Doorman,” which is effectively a bottle episode, shown in black-and-white, as we flash back to the events that resulted in “The Doorman Clause” that plagues Simon Williams. Gad plays himself, the life of the party at the height of his Frozen fame, as he frequents the nightclub that employs DeMarr Davis (Byron Bowers). A bartender teases what’s to come when she tells DeMarr at the end of one shift:
People went apeshit when Olaf started crowd-surfing.
The actor ends up having a huge impact on the series’ story, as after DeMarr uses his new, ooze-enabled superpowers to save the club’s patrons from a fire (more on that later), Josh Gad convinces him to become an actor, hilariously brushing off DeMarr’s protestations by saying:
I can't act. It's never stopped me from being an actor.
Josh Gad becomes a tragic figure in this alt-Hollywood, ultimately disappearing inside The Doorman when a stunt goes wrong on set. This results in the creation of The Doorman Clause, which makes it all but impossible for superpowered individuals like Simon Williams to get work in Hollywood.
Before things got dark, though, Gad was responsible for one of the most delightful scenes in the whole series.
Josh Gad Singing ‘In Summer’ At A Raucous Nightclub Was Absolutely Unhinged
It would seem Josh Gad was a regular performer during his visits to the club, regaling patrons with songs by the Frozen snowman who likes warm hugs, and I couldn’t get enough of him fully rocking out to “In Summer.” A club remix of the tune pumps over the speakers as the voice of Olaf sings along and works the crowd by shouting things like:
We're melting! Melting, bitches!
What makes this scene so great is that it’s not exactly portraying this beloved Disney character in his typical family friendly light, especially as the pyrotechnics accompanying J-Gad’s performance started the fire that would ultimately lead to The Doorman’s rise and fall.
His pouring his drink on that guy (pictured above) was also definitely a choice, and I loved it. I mean, what are you even doing if you’re Marvel and you’re not taking advantage of Disney IP like this?
Joe Pantoliano Was A Hilarious Rival For Ben Kingsley’s Trevor
Before Wonder Man even hit Disney+, fans were excited to see what role Joe Pantoliano would have in the MCU series. Despite playing some of the most ruthless villains in entertainment history, he’s a favorite of both fans and fellow actors — well, except for Trevor Slattery.
Ben Kingsley’s character’s disdain for Joey Pants is established early in Episode 2, “Self-Tape,” when the woman sitting next to Trevor on a plane recognizes him from South Shore Hospital and says she loves Pantoliano. This is met with an eyeroll from Trevor and an exhausted, “Yeah, people do.”
We learn soon after that Joey Pantoliano had Trevor’s character killed off of the medical series after three episodes, so you just know things are going to go down when the Wonder Man wannabes are forced to film their audition tapes at Pantoliano’s house.
The Sopranos star is over the top from the jump, showing off his luxury home, complete with skylights for his indoor tree, a shelf of trophies and a spread of delicacies that include “mozz flown in from Hoboken.” He’s so deliciously charming with his microaggressions, praising the art of the audition process before telling Simon:
I'm offer-only, so it's hard for me to relate.
But Joe Pantoliano takes it a step too far by telling his former co-star that he’s jealous that Trevor is done acting because he can eat what he wants and not worry about the trades. Simon snaps and delivers the most hilarious takedown, saying:
Don't pretend to be happy for him, Joe Pantoliano. You think you bein' nice, but you're actually condescending as shit. Do you know that? That speech was the dumbest, most patronizing thing I've ever heard. You suck, Joe Pantoliano. Baby's Day Out is garbage. Even that dumb baby couldn't make you funny.
The use of Joe Pantoliano’s full name twice in that rant is everything, and wow, he goes hard at Baby’s Day Out. Simon and Trevor stormed out of the lavish mansion, but that’s not the last we’d see of “Joseph Trousers,” as Ben Kingsley apparently called the actor on set.
Joe Pantoliano’s Cameo Pays Off In Finale Surprise
In the finale, "Yucca Valley," Trevor returns to prison after taking the fall for an explosion caused by Simon in a fit of rage. We see Trevor film his scenes as Wonder Man without a Barnaby, only to learn via time jump to the movie’s premiere that it was none other than Joe Pantoliano who replaced Trevor in the role.
It was a laugh-out-loud reveal, made only funnier when Simon went to break Trevor out of prison and faced a barrage of questions:
- Trevor: So? Who replaced me?
- Simon: Oh, it's not important.
- Trevor: Pierce Brosnan?
- Simon: Let's not get into it.
- Trevor: De Niro?
- Simon: No.
- Trevor: Antonio Banderas? We always get mistaken for each other.
In so many TV shows and movies, cameos can just be throw-away appearances — fan service through face recognition. In Wonder Man’s case, though, I love how seamlessly Josh Gad and Joe Pantoliano fit into the meta storylines and make major contributions to Simon and Trevor’s journeys.
Relive these great performances by streaming all eight episodes of Wonder Man on Disney+.
