The star of Wonder Man has now confirmed on the record what everyone around the show keeps circling: the numbers killed it. He just was not allowed to see them.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II said he was given a specific reason when Marvel canceled the series despite its Season 2 renewal.
“Yes, I did. 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.”
Notice the pattern. Abdul-Mateen II was told viewership but shown nothing. Showrunner Andrew Guest said numbers were never shared with him either.
A recent report pointed to viewership that did not justify the costs. Everyone attached to this show has been pointed at numbers that nobody outside a Disney conference room has ever seen.
The only Wonder Man data that has ever existed in public is Nielsen’s, where the series charted for one week and vanished.
Update: Luminate has since published its own read on the cancellation, and it is the closest thing to an answer Abdul-Mateen II has gotten. Roughly half the people who started the season never reached the finale, leaving the show a point under the retention line Disney+ series need to clear.
“The Optics Are Obvious”
Vanity Fair then asked the question hanging over all of this. A
n Emmy-nominated, Black-led Marvel series gets its renewal rescinded while Mahershala Ali’s frustrations over Blade fuel the same online conversation.
Abdul-Mateen II, whose own production company focuses on inclusive stories, did not dodge.
“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,” he said.
Then came the part Disney should sit with.
“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,” he said.
He is asking Disney to show its work, and it is a fair ask, because Disney has never released a single viewership figure for this series. Not at launch, not at the renewal, not at the cancellation. Companies release numbers they like.
The vacuum Disney created is exactly what every competing narrative is now rushing to fill, and that is a problem of Disney’s own making.
The Season 2 That Stays On The Shelf
Abdul-Mateen II also revealed where he hoped Simon Williams was headed, and it matches what he was teasing before the axe fell.
“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,” he said.
That season exists on paper. Guest had already written the premiere when Disney walked away.
As for the strange symmetry of a show about Hollywood heartbreak getting its heart broken by Hollywood, the actor did not flinch there either.
“It’s a lesson in life. It’s so close to what real life is,” he said, pointing to Simon getting close over and over without closing the deal. “The cancellation of the show was just another one of those examples.”
Simon Williams finally got everything he wanted, and then the business took it back. The show did not need a second season to make its point. Disney made it for them.
