This story contains spoilers for "Wonder Man " Episode 4, "Doorman."

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Josh Gad never imagined he would be asked to play himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But then the creatives behind "Wonder Man" reached out to him with a "crazy idea": They wanted him to portray an outlandish alternate version of himself in a cautionary tale about superpower-fueled Hollywood celebrity.

A longtime admirer of the franchise, Gad was immediately ready to say yes after reading the hilarious script — but he had one condition.

"I said to [Marvel Studios head] Kevin Feige … as long as I get to still play a character down the road in the MCU that isn't Josh Gad, I'm happy to do this," says Gad. "He said yes, so it was like, 'Let's buckle up and go on this weird journey together.'"

Created by Destin Daniel Cretton ("Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings") and Andrew Guest ("Hawkeye"), "Wonder Man," out now on Disney+, follows Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a struggling Hollywood actor trying to find his big break. While at the movies one day, Simon encounters Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), a washed-up actor who gained infamy for playing the leader of a terrorist organization in propaganda videos, and learns a famous director is remaking a superhero movie, "Wonder Man."

"The show was conceived as a show about a single relationship, this friendship," Guest says. "And we always talked about it as these two narcissists who essentially learn by the end of the season to care about one other person — each other."

One of the MCU's more grounded installments, "Wonder Man" is less a superhero origin story than a love letter to Los Angeles, filmmaking and artists chasing their dreams. Cretton says it was important to him, as well as production designers Cindy Chao and Michele Yu, to capture the place they know: a diverse city with people who care, where achieving your Hollywood dreams can simultaneously feel incredibly close and impossibly far away.

Gad appears in the show's fourth episode, titled "Doorman." The sole installment presented in black and white, this moody episode tells the story of DeMarr Davis, a nightclub employee portrayed by Byron Bowers who suddenly gains the power of being a human door that others can pass through like a portal. After using his new power to save some patrons — including his friend Gad — DeMarr quickly becomes a celebrity.

But DeMarr struggles to break free from his Doorman niche. One day a mishap while shooting a stunt that relies on DeMarr's power for a movie leaves the fictional version of Gad trapped inside him. A blanket ban on individuals with superpowers in Hollywood productions is enacted in the aftermath.

"I wanted to weave a way to translate [Simon's] biggest fear," says Guest of the cautionary Doorman tale that explains why Simon has to keep his powers a secret. "We talked in the writers room a lot about the people who've come and gone on the scene who were, like, one-joke people … who have those kind of careers that, from the outside, maybe you think [is] a success."

For Bowers, DeMarr's story echoes the cautionary tales he grew up with of "forgotten about" people, who, despite their talents, burn out or see their careers fizzle for different reasons. He saw this episode, as well as the series, as an opportunity to have audiences think about the people whose "talents are hidden because society don't allow you to shine."

"I think we all have a fear of our strengths," Bowers says. "We're afraid to take those chances because of these cautionary tales … So I am happy to tell the story where an ordinary person had their chance to shine and then fell off, [because] this cautionary tale allows other 'ordinary people,' quote, unquote, to [figure out how to] deal with their talents as well."

James Ponsoldt, who directed "Doorman," says he immediately gravitated toward the episode because it was a unique, playful and strange installment that was like its own mini-movie within the show.

"The unique thing about DeMarr is he's not a striver," Ponsoldt says. "He's pretty content with his life. He's working at a club, working the door, and he suddenly is thrust into … celebrity."

"Loving acting and loving movies and celebrity — those are different things," he adds. "They're different things and the show explores both of them. I think Episode 4 explores the peaks and valleys of celebrity and the blessing and the curse of sudden celebrity."

The contrast between DeMarr and Simon's ambitions and career trajectory are very intentional.

"We liked the idea that this wasn't what [DeMarr] wanted at all and it's only because he does something heroic that all this stuff gets thrust upon him, and he's not equipped to handle it," Guest says. He also points out that maintaining a career in Hollywood is just plain difficult.

DeMarr "is not burdened, like Simon is, with the idea of talent and [that he] should be at a different level than where he's at," says Cretton. At least not "until Josh Gad enters the picture and … plants the Hollywood dream seed into [him] and you get to see how that seed can blossom into something really wonderful and then wither and die and suck you down if you're not careful."

For the "Wonder Man" team, reaching out to Gad was a no-brainer. In addition to both Cretton and Feige being fans of the actor, Gad is a beloved Disney icon.

"He's also known for being a really great, nice guy, so [having him] play a little bit of the opposite of that was really, really fun," says Cretton.

Gad, for his part, was thrilled "that they leaned into the absurdity" to create this "bats—" version of him that regularly holds court at a nightclub.

"I love that in this world, for whatever reason, this variant of myself is just requiring full-time security protection," Gad says. "That was the first thing that really made me laugh — that I would just need an entourage."

He was also tickled by the fact that "Frozen's" Olaf not only exists in the reality of "Wonder Man," but "for some reason, he is an icon in the dance clubs." The episode features Gad performing an over-the-top club remix of "In Summer."

Gad says he was given a lot of freedom to play "within the confines of the story that they were telling" and had nothing but praise for Bowers.

"When you're doing something this crazy, it's a trust exercise," Gad says. "The freedom to play within the script required trust between me and Byron in a way that would have really gone south had I not had somebody who was willing to play."

As for the fictional Gad's fate after getting trapped inside DeMarr, Gad says he is "somehow … still alive."

"We did an ADR session where I was in there and I was just sort of living a life inside of DeMarr," Gad says. "One day, maybe I'll come out of there … I'm excited about finding out for myself."

"We're going to get him out," Guest confirms. "Give us a Season 2, and we'll get Josh Gad out of Doorman."

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