After posting what looks like rock-bottom streaming momentum for Marvel on Disney+, Wonder Man is now trying a different play: giving viewers a free sample on YouTube.
Wonder Man Episode 1 is now free on Marvel’s official YouTube
Marvel has made Episode 1 (“Matinee”) available to watch in full for free on the official Marvel YouTube channel. The move was also promoted by Marvel Studios on X.
Nielsen charts, but the per-episode average is ugly
Wonder Man finally hit Nielsen’s weekly streaming Top 10 for Jan. 26 – Feb. 01, 2026, landing at #8 on the Originals chart with 618 million minutes watched for ALL 8 episodes available.
That’s only 77.25 million minutes per episode, which is extremely soft for a full-season binge drop and reads like a new Disney+ low for Marvel.
As we went over, for comparison, Echo pulled 731 million minutes for the week of Jan. 8–14, 2024, with 5 episodes available, which averages about 146.2 million minutes per episode, nearly double Wonder Man on a minutes-per-episode basis.
“Rejected by fans” talk grows as test screening claims resurface
The free YouTube release lands as more reporting circulates about behind-the-scenes trouble.
Showrunner Andrew Guest said on The Watch podcast there were “several moments where we almost didn’t survive,” describing how Marvel’s Disney+ output was re-evaluated mid-process and the show was even taken “off their board for a moment.”
Guest also said the first two episodes had poor test screenings, and that Marvel’s response wasn’t to walk away, but to market the series differently.
