Wonder Man has a great reference to Oscar winning film, here is why it works brilliantly

Wonder Man is finally up on Disney+, and you instantly know what the show is trying to do. Instead of directly showing us superheroes right from the get-go, the new MCU project leans into being a love letter to the film industry, and with the amount of references it throws around, it's pretty wholesome!

One movie reference that stands out quite a bit in Wonder Man is a clear nod to an Oscar-winning classic, "Midnight Cowboy". The MCU project uses the film to highlight how the relationships on the show grow and how they affect the story.

Midnight Cowboy as a reference drives the mood, the pacing, and the bond between the characters, and if you love cinema, there's no other MCU TV series you might love more, well, perhaps maybe apart from WandaVision.

The theater scene and the reference to Midnight Cowboy tells you exactly what kind of a show Wonder Man wants to be

Wonder Man tells us the story of Simon Williams and the way he moves through the world. He is obsessed with acting, sometimes to his own disadvantage. He pushes shoots too far, overthinks many scenes, and often annoys the people who're paying him.

But the obsession only comes from a real love for movies. He remembers old performances from actors, hunts down repertory screenings, and treats cinema like it is something so very sacred to him. Loving cinema is perhaps an understatement for Simon William.

The love for film, however, leads him to a theater screening of Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film to ever win Best Picture. It is a bold move for a Disney+ series to even think of involving such a reference in one of their MCU show but here we are!

The reference here slowly starts to mirror the direction of the show. Midnight Cowboy is a film about two lost people (Joe Buck and Rizzo) forming a strange friendship while trying to live a life in the city. Wonder Man picks up on that same energy and adapts it into the world of struggling actors navigating Hollywood and the pressures of being involved in filmmaking.

This is also where Simon meets Trevor Slattery, a former actor with a past tied to the fake Mandarin storyline. Their first meeting during this screening feels very intentional, and through the reference, the audience is supposed to guess what kind of bond we're to expect between these two characters.

Just two imperfect people finding common ground through shared love for the craft and art of cinema.

Simon and Trevor’s odd little partnership is where the reference really pays off

What really sells the Midnight Cowboy reference is how naturally Simon and Trevor’s relationship comes about because, on paper, they should not really click. But here, they do.

Simon is extremely hopeful, and he's also chasing artistic respect. Trevor is older and is carrying regret from the choices he's made in his own past. Yet their conversations and shared industry scars slowly pull them together.

There is a bit of mentor energy at first, but later on, they also start to challenge each other, mess things up, but they still keep showing up. This mirrors the unlikely duo energy that made Midnight Cowboy memorable, without ripping it off.

Wonder Man proves that a well-placed film reference actually strengthens a story instead of pulling away from it. By pulling cues from an Oscar-winning classic and filtering them through characters in the MCU, the series deepens its relationships, tone, and pacing without losing its own identity as a Disney+ show.

The Midnight Cowboy reference only guides how Simon and Trevor grow together while staying true to Wonder Man’s storytelling.

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