Wonder Man Is Right: Marvel Has an Optics Problem

Let me put my cards on the table: When Marvel stepped on a huge rake by fumbling both Blade and Wonder Man Season 2 in less than 24 hours of each other, I did not, and still don’t, buy the social media narrative that Marvel is deliberately canceling Black-led projects. However, I did write the following: “That one-two punch is obviously not a good look for the studio.” And that brings us to Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s latest remarks on Wonder Man getting the axe despite both a renewal order and a well-earned Emmy nomination. (Seriously, don’t let this nonsense dissuade you from watching the now-limited series. It’s easily the best of these shows.)

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Abdul-Mateen opened about the surprise cancellation, and what that was like on his end.

“I was told that it had something to do with the viewership numbers,” he said. “I wasn’t told what those numbers were, but ultimately, for whatever reason it was, I think they decided that it didn’t make sense for business, and that’s the decision that we live with and we keep on marching forward.”

That explanation tracks with what we know about Disney+ viewership. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 was a bloodbath, and there have been recent reports that both Marvel and Star Wars are pivoting to animation on the streaming front. In short, Disney is done throwing money down the drain and having nothing to show for it but two wobbly and diluted brands.

That being said, Abdul-Mateen is not wrong here:

There’s been online discourse between the cancellation of this and Mahershala Ali’s frustration about the Blade film. Your own production company focuses on telling more Black and inclusive stories. Do you feel like there is a problem with what is and isn’t being greenlit or supported?

I think the optics are obvious. If I’m a big business, if I’m Disney, if I’m Marvel, I don’t want to be attached to these optics. So it should be a priority to change that narrative and to do what it takes to responsibly change that narrative with quality stories, with quality resources. I felt that our show did have quality story, did have quality resources, did have quality actors and people, and did produce quality results that the viewers responded to positively, that the voters responded to positively. So our show does deserve some study and some real, hard information about why a show like this did not continue forward, because it had all of the ingredients that one would want in a show.

The optics are 100% bad. Even though I do know the reason behind these decisions and grasp the barren landscape that is Disney+, I’m not going to sit here and act like both Blade and Wonder Man crumbling within minutes of each other looks great. Sure, one could argue that Mahershala Ali caught Marvel by surprise with his GQ interview that sealed his Blade’s fate, but we’re talking about a multi-billion dollar company with a marketing and PR department. They should be prepared for these things, or cynically, they counted on the Black Panther recasting and the barrage of Avengers: Doomsday and X-Men news to smooth everything over. And maybe it will?