Wonder Man

Marvel is going in all kinds of bold creative directions with their recent trailers. In recent weeks they began releasing standalone trailers for the character arcs of individual cast members of _Avengers: Doomsday _due out in December (with trailers for Steve Rogers and Thor released so far, might there be a full 25 more of these to come?). This approach sure throws the Teaser Trailer / Official Trailer / Official Trailer 2 model out the window.

And now this past week Marvel Television released an official trailer for their new 8-episode series Wonder Man, and the trailer plays like an Instagram reel, with massive yellow block letters on screen narrating the story, all synched to a Spanish guitar version of the catchy furtive motif from the overture of Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 comic opera The Barber of Seville.

Comic opera meets Marvel comics.

These days pop stars love writing catchy hooks for their songs, but let’s take a moment and recognize the skill of Rossini, whose melodic hook, with a mere five notes, written over 200 years ago, is instantly recognizable in the first 2 seconds of this trailer. After this opening salvo, the music pauses as we see Simon (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) giving himself a pep talk. He wants to be cast as Wonder Man.

At 0:03, the Rossini motif returns, synched to the arrival on screen of yellow italic block letters proclaiming, “THIS IS SIMON.” And honestly, here it’s as if the guitar notes are evoking the actual syllables of these words, that’s how integrated the sync is. From 0:06-0:09 the text on screen continues, with nearly each word synched to a note of music.

At 0:11 after a sustained chord in the orchestra that has meantime entered, we cut to Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley). He’s at a restaurant table by himself letting out a long slow breath. From 0:14-0:20 we have the same introductory montage as before, this time for Trevor: big yellow words and bite-sized Rossini phrases on guitar. Then we cut abruptly to complete musical silence at 0:20 for comedic effect as the casting directors discuss their suspicion that Trevor “used to be a terrorist.”

At 0:24 the guitar returns along with the yellow block letters, as Simon and Trevor stand outside the mansion of famed Hollywood director Von Kovak (Zlatko Buric), and this time the music phrase ends with the sound of a cash register chiming (at 0:27), synched to the arrival on screen of a question mark at the end of the sentence.

At 0:41, as Simon and Trevor are invited into the house, we see the Marvel Television logo on screen, and orchestral strings begin playing a series of staccato notes, leading us into the introduction of Von Kovak, from 0:43-0:52 (following the same yellow block letters and Spanish guitar Rossini riff formula). Then from 0:55-1:02 we have the orchestral string and brass sections continuing the driving rhythms to accompany Simon’s voiceover describing how high the stakes are for him to land this part. This sequence ends at 1:02 as Simon arrives at a reception desk for another interview, and this time the music phrase finishes with the sound of the bells on a door jangling on the downbeat.

From 1:09-1:28 the montage showing Simon preparing for his audition and receiving advice from Trevor is accompanied by a racing string section and the guitar climbing higher and higher in register. This montage climaxes when Simon smashes his dining room table to pieces with his fists with earthquake-like intensity. This moment, which lasts a full five seconds, is accompanied by a low boom and high-pitched hum, suggesting Simon’s latent superpowers may carry some sonic dangers along with the destructive capabilities that we see on screen.

And, like so many trailers we’ve blogged about in recent months (for example, see the middle of the Ballad of A Small Player teaser or the ending of this Alien: Earth trailer), the final 30 seconds of this trailer feature some rapid-fire cuts between action scenes synched to the beat of the music, to get our head spinning, our pulses racing, and our minds attuned to our desire to see the full series. Between1:41 and 1:56 we cut between over 20 shots (more than one per second on average), and in most of these, either the shot cut or the action on screen (or both) are synched to the beat of the music, building furiously and relentlessly to the trailer’s final climax. Then at 1:56 the music cuts out for the obligatory turn phrase (this is a comedy after all, among other genres).

There’s a lot here. We’ve got a trailer that unabashedly borrows from Instagram story-style editing, while seamlessly integrating orchestral musical hooks from a 200-year old Italian comic opera overture. That, and an unapologetically formulaic let’s-introduce-one-character-at-a-time approach to preview a story that is written as a meta commentary on the journey of actors auditioning for roles within the Hollywood system, calling to mind Seth Rogin’s backstage comedy The Studio. I’ll be chewing on this for a while to come.

Get ready: _Wonder Man _begins streaming on Disney+ January 27.

— Jack Hui Litster