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Three weeks ago came the unexpected news that Marvel Studios had cancelled its “Wonder Man” TV series after just one season.
The axing came despite the first season scoring rave reviews and a very quick second season renewal order back in March.
Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Ben Kingsley starred in the series as Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery, respectively, with Abdul Mateen earning an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.
Now, Abdul Mateen has responded to the cancellation in a new interview with Vanity Fair. The actor confirmed that the show is done and it all tied back to viewership numbers in some way:
“I was told that it had something to do with the viewership numbers. 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.”
Asked what he thought Season 2 would have been about, Mateen says that he left that up to the ‘fantastic’ writers:
“I stayed away from that. I think we have fantastic writers. They did a great job of setting the tone for season one. So I had my hopes and my dreams about where I wanted the character to go for season two. I was very interested in telling the story of Simon, who we watched pursue everything he’s always wanted.
And then I think, for me, the interesting question to explore is: 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? And for a guy like Simon to get fame and 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.”
The fact that this got cancelled despite a renewal, and that Marvel also recently abandoned Mahershala Ali’s “Blade” after years of failed attempts, has raised some understandable questions about how bad it looks that two Black-led projects at the studio imploded while something like the Ryan Gosling-led “Ghost Rider” project came together super fast. The actor says:
“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 series was co-created by Destin Daniel Cretton who, coming off directing “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” is expected to return for more MCU projects in the future.
The post “Wonder Man” Star Talks Its Cancellation appeared first on Dark Horizons.
