Marvel Studios built hype for Avengers: Doomsday, VisionQuest, and X-Men at D23, but many fans remain upset about the cancellation of Wonder Man. The news broke at the end of last month and was quickly followed by comments from Mahershala Ali about why he's finally walked away from Blade.
That's two projects led by Black characters scrapped in quick succession. Making matters worse in Wonder Man's case is the fact that the plug was pulled on the series after it was officially renewed for Season 2.
It appears low viewership on Disney+ was the reason Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery's stories reached an abrupt end, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has now made his feelings on the matter clear.
Talking to Vanity Fair, the actor appeared understandably happy with how things played out and touched on the broader issues that come with Wonder Man and Blade being shelved by Disney. "I think the optics are obvious," he stated. "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 was told that it had something to do with the viewership numbers," Abdul-Mateen said of the decision not to move forward with Wonder Man Season 2. "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."
"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."
Work on Season 2 had begun when the axe fell, but no specific story details have been revealed. For the Aquaman and Watchmen star, exploring what became of Simon when he'd finally achieved his dreams as an actor was key.
"Well, what are you going to do when you finally get it? What do you do when you finally get everything that you’ve always wanted?" he mused. "And for a guy like Simon to get fame, notoriety, and a little bit of power, he has a big heart, but he also has an ego. He also wants to be a star."
While it's been said that Wonder Man could return elsewhere in the MCU, Abdul-Mateen doesn't sound so sure. Dancing around a possible MCU return, he said, "I understand that that’s the nature of this business—there’s highs and lows. Business and life move on."
The actor has received an Emmy nomination for his performance, but Wonder Man itself didn't receive any nods, despite glowing reviews. Streaming platforms rarely disclose viewership numbers, so we'll likely never know how the series really fared on Disney+.
"Yahya Abdul-Mateen II steals the show in this delightfully original two-hander about friendship, acting, and being true to yourself," we wrote in our review. "Wonder Man is the cure to superhero fatigue and the most original MCU TV series since WandaVision."
Wonder Man is now streaming on Disney+.