‘Wonder Man’ Just Revealed Hollywood’s Current Dark Reality

1 week ago 11

Published Feb 1, 2026, 12:30 PM EST

Billy is a Senior Features Author for Collider. Having written over 300 articles in just over a year, Billy regularly covers the biggest TV shows and films releasing while also analysing some of the most underrated properties that may slip your attention.
Having studied for an MA in Screenwriting at UAL in 2023, Billy honed his writing skills and also developed his ability to critique the work of other creative minds.
Before that, Billy studied politics at the University of Nottingham, which helped him to bring nuanced and scholarly analysis to the frameworks within which filmmakers and writers have framed their thematic messages.

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Wonder Man Episode 2.

The TV landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been inconsistent at best for most of its existence. Shows such as WandaVision and Loki received widespread acclaim, while She-Hulk and Ironheart struggled to build a committed audience. The first season of Daredevil: Born Again experienced such a major creative overhaul that most fans are reserving judgment for Season 2. However, the most recent small-screen release, Wonder Man, feels like a breath of fresh air — not just for the television side of Marvel, but the MCU in general. With a focus mostly on the highs and lows of being an aspiring actor in Hollywood, Episode 2, "Self-Tape," could have been dismissed as trivial, but instead reflects just how difficult the auditioning process has become.

'Wonder Man' Episode 2 Follows Simon's Impossible Journey To Self-Tape His Audition

The goal of almost every TV episode is to offer a contained story that builds upon a larger narrative. No matter how small the protagonist's objective, it must guide the episode's structure while commenting on the show's themes, and Wonder Man nails this in Episode 2. Simon's (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) seemingly simple goal of sending in a self-tape audition turns into a much bigger adventure than viewers could have anticipated

Simon must not only call on Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) to help him read the other half of the audition script, but also accompany him to a self-taping studio that seems to be scamming actors by dragging out recording sessions. After this fails, Trevor calls on his one friend, which results in a cameo from The Matrix icon Joe Pantoliano. Like all heroes' journeys, Simon's quest eventually leads him home, where he uses the lessons he has learned about acting along the way to deliver a wonderful audition.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams in a dark room in front of a camera and a ring light in Wonder Man.

Despite all the time, money, and effort Simon has invested, including the requirement of a quiet space with good lighting and a suitable audition partner, this is all done in service of a role he may not even get. What makes it even worse in hindsight is knowing how desperate Simon is for work, with his financial problems further explored in Episode 3, "Paicoma." As Pantoliano points out in "Self-Tape," this difficult process applies more to rising actors, with established names expecting studio offers for the role rather than being made to audition.

'Wonder Man's Self-Tapes Reflect the Growing Frustration in the Acting Industry

While it's highly unlikely that a request for a self-tape would lead someone to Joey Pants' house, Simon and Trevor's emphasis on the inconvenient and troublesome rise of self-tapes is not far from the truth. Self-tapes became much more prevalent during and after COVID, yet their continued usage has diminished their overall benefits, and the cons now outweigh any pros. Many would argue that the ability to self-tape increases the number of auditions an aspiring actor can have, as there is no need to travel or fit into a specific time slot. During an interview with CBC News, actor Joel D. Montgrand, from shows such as True Detective and Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, acknowledged these benefits yet also pointed out that the rise in auditions does not correlate to an increase in roles received.

Additionally, as Wonder Man also showed, actors' self-tapes are accompanied by the unwritten rule that they must be properly lit, filmed, and edited, and those whose tapes are not are likely to be rejected. Whether unions such as SAG-AFTRA will be able to negotiate regulations to limit such exploitation of rising actors is yet to be seen. However, even if they do, that won't compensate for the time and money that real actors have spent producing self-tapes. In the end, Wonder Man does examine why it would be difficult for a superhero to make it as an actor, but also makes itself incredibly relatable by reflecting on how hard it is for aspiring actors in an ever-changing industry.