Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ pulls off its most meta marketing move
When Yahya Abdul Mateen II stepped onto the blue carpet at the premiere of Fantastic Four: First Steps last July, fans expected the usual Marvel crossover love.
Instead, he showed up fully in character as Simon Williams, promoting the fictional Wonder Man movie inside Wonder Man.
Yes, Marvel basically promoted a fake movie at real premiere.
“That was a tone setting exercise,” says Ryan Stankevich, marketing brand lead for Marvel and Disney. “It was a signal to the audience that this was something different.”
Different is putting it mildly. The Disney+ series, which dropped all eight episodes on January 27, leans hard into Hollywood satire – complete with real landmarks and actors like Josh Gad and Joe Pantoliano playing themselves.
So, the marketing followed the suit.
Instead of designing a generic teaser poster, the team mocked up a fake cover from The Hollywood Reporter. “We could always do a fake industry trade, but that’s not as fun,” she noted.
“If we’re really going to lean into the meta nature of the campaign and lean into the Hollywood nature of everything, we should have a real Hollywood Reporter.”
Tey didn’t expect approval. They got it.
From there, things only got wilder. A fictional director announced the in-universe film on Discussing Film’s X account. Ben Kingsley popped up in character as Trevor Slattery, even storming out of an interview with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
“You need actors that are willing, who lean in and are excited,” says Stankevich. “They loved the show, and they understood exactly what we were trying to do.”
There was even a text campaign – fans could message “ACT” to Trevor’s number for acting tips. “Ben recorded weeks’ worth of acting tips. I’m still getting text messages from Trevor Slattery explaining the craft,” Stankevich added with a laugh.
Marvel didn’t just break the fourth wall. It redecorated it.
