Marvel’s Viral Marketing For New Show Redeems Its Worst Movie

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 24 seconds ago

While I’m on the record as absolutely loving the film, many fans consider Iron Man 3 the worst entry in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are many reasons for this, but the thing that angered the fandom the most was the revelation that the seeming terrorist mastermind, the Mandarin, was actually just a drunken actor named Trevor Slattery.

The Trevor Slattery character is returning for the upcoming Wonder Man series, and Marvel is now redeeming its worst villain with viral marketing disguised as hilarious flyers for Slattery’s acting classes.

Flyers, You Fools!

Around the country, fans have recently started spotting flyers featuring Ben Kingsley’s face. The poster reads “Trevor Slattery” at the top and identifies him as an “Acting Coach to the Stars.” His tagline is “Acting isn’t a job, it’s a calling.” Most tantalizingly, the poster encourages fans to text the word “act” to 805-8-TREVOR for acting tips.

Should you text the number, you receive the following message: “Greetings, thespian! Sign up for the Slattery Method, an acting seminar by me, Trevor Slattery.” After that, you are asked to “repy Y to sign up for autodialed texts from Marvel about Wonder Man.” After doing so, you’ll get a text reading “Cheers to your acting journey,” a link to an acting seminar promotional video starring Ben Kingsley as Slattery, and an opportunity to add the Marvel character as a contact to your phone.

From Werewolves To Congressmen

The video (also available on YouTube) has Slattery introducing himself and promoting “the Slattery Method.” He declares himself “a legendary actor” and promises to provide tools transforming students into “the next Trevor Slattery.” The short video has plenty of deadpan humor, including the actor’s promise to “make you think I’m a werewolf, or a congressman, or a Tickle-Me-Elmo,” before encouraging actors to text “act” to the aforementioned number.

As such, it’s a very self-contained marketing system: the video advertises the number, and the number advertises the video. Speaking of numbers, if you try to call the Slattery contact on your phone, you get a voicemail from Kingsley where he describes how the seminar will help you master box breathing, improvisation, the “fine art of accents,” and how to ace your audition. The message ends with him saying something about the IRS that I couldn’t understand because he began speaking in an accent somewhere between Steve Urkel and Borat.

The Lessons Begin

Since I began writing, I have gotten a single “lesson” from Slattery in the form of a 30-second audio about improvisation. The message has the same off-kilter sense of humor as everything else, with the character saying that he prefers a “no, but” structure to the traditional “yes, and” structure of improv.  As an example of this, he says that he once countered a director’s question of whether he was off-book (acting slang for having the scene memorized), and he responded with “no, but I’m brilliant.”

I haven’t really been all that excited about Wonder Man before this…I found him a pretty forgettable character in the comics, and Marvel’s recent track record has been very hit-or-miss. But I found this bit of guerrilla advertising for the show to be very endearing, and it’s cool to see Academy Award-winning actor Ben Kingsley willing to get so silly for a bit of viral marketing. Frankly, if he’s going to be as funny in the show as he is in the video and the voice message, I now have at least one major reason to watch the Wonder Man show.

Redeeming The Worst Marvel Movie

I’m also tentatively hopeful that both Wonder Man and this viral marketing do something that once seemed impossible: getting fans to give Iron Man 3 another shot. It is by far the funniest of the Iron Man movies, and Ben Kingsley is hilarious as both the fearsome Mandarin and the bumbling Trevor Slattery. Even if you hate the twist regarding his character, the simple truth is that Kingsley is one of the best actors to ever grace the MCU.

Fans can rediscover just how good Kingsley is when Wonder Man premieres on January 27, 2026. Hopefully, Wonder Man actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will be able to match Kingsley’s swag as this unexpected duo lights up the small screen. If the actor playing the title character does a poor job, there’s always a simple solution: he could text 805-8-TREVOR to take some acting classes from Trevor Slattery!