Wonder Man Was Ready to Go With Season Two: Why Was It Cancelled?

Wonder Man was very well-reviewed, received Emmy nominations, and had been greenlit for a second season. It seemed to be a success. Then Disney pulled the plug. Yahya Abdul Mateen II, the star of the show, was surprised but wrote on Instagram, “That’s life, right? Everything will shake out.” The showrunner and co-creator Andrew Guest took to TikTok on Saturday (via Variety) to thank fans and share his thoughts on the news. It was as much a surprise to him as it was to us.

“Just want to say I’ve been listening. I appreciate you all. I feel how you all feel, and I just want to clear up when I can here. This is not a marketing stunt. There is no movie in the works, and [Destin Daniel Cretton’s] schedule and no one’s schedule was an issue. Yahya [Abdul Mateen II], Destin, Sir Ben [Kingsley] and I all loved making this show. All felt passionately about continuing to do it, and were eager to. Contracts were signed, schedules were cleared.”

“The writers’ room was supposed to start this month. The production was supposed to begin early next year, and there was a decision made internally between Disney and Marvel that this didn’t make sense for them, even though a few months ago it did. And that’s essentially all I really know.”

It’s not unheard of for a show to be renewed and then cancelled. Networks and studios are fickle creatures. But it does seem odd that Wonder Man would have the rug pulled out from underneath its super feet when the cast and crew are in the middle of Emmy campaigning. You had an MCU show that got the critics excited but clearly that wasn’t enough. We’ve talked a lot about Marvel fatigue and the signs of it over the past couple of years. I wonder if the TV division felt it more than the movie side of things. Keeping up with three films a year is tough enough, but adding 13 hours of TV to that? We’ve got stuff to do. Many of those shows simply felt, for lack of a better term, unnecessary. Wonder Man actually bucked that trend. It was funny, a welcome change of pace, and anchored by a great performance. It seemed to get lost in the shuffle.

Marvel’s doubling down on what it knows, which mostly means nostalgia and reviving all the actors and characters from the first phase of the franchise. Avengers: Doomsday is largely being marketed as a big family reunion of recognisable IP. It’ll probably work. Sadly, it doesn’t leave much room for stuff that dips its toe outside of the MCU’s stifling confines. There’s a timidity to the MCU and Kevin Feige’s decision-making process that they’ve managed to justify as long as they get a billion-dollar hit out of it every now and then. Look at Blade. It should no have been tough for them to expand their scope and give Mahershala Ali, who desperately wanted the role, the budget and freedom to make a hit. Yet they couldn’t get out of their own way and the micromanaging has all but killed that film. They wasted a double Oscar winner’s time because they were terrified of change.

It’s also tough to ignore how both Blade and Wonder Man were projects centred on Black stars that Marvel has now cancelled. They barely marketed Ironheart, Anthony Mackie’s Captain America is being sidelined in favour of Chris Evans’ return, and where the hell is Monica Rambeau? It increasingly feels as though the MCU has decided that the Black Panther series is more than enough for Black audiences and characters.

The money tap has been turned off at Disney. They’re laying off thousands of workers, even with films like Toy Story 5 breaking records. Flops like Moana are piling up, and the belt-tightening means that a lot more people are going to be let go by this money-printing machine known as the House of Mouse. They’re planning on selling the company’s 50% stake in A+E Global Media, which could net them about $1 billion. I doubt that cash will go towards making good films and series.