Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says Disney canceled Wonder Man after telling him the decision was tied to viewership numbers, even though the Marvel series had already been greenlit for a second season. He said he was not given the numbers themselves, only the explanation.
The comments landed in the middle of a busy stretch for Abdul-Mateen II, who said in July he learned by text from his publicist that he had earned his second Emmy nomination. He said he was on a set at craft services, snacking on cranberry applesauce, and had no idea nominations were being announced that day. That made the news a surprise, and it also gave him a fresh reason to talk about a show that Disney had already decided not to move forward with.
On Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen II played Simon Williams, an aspiring actor who wants to star in a remake of Wonder Man while keeping his superpowers hidden. He said he took the job for the right reasons and that he had a great time doing it. He also said the show was well reviewed, which is part of what makes the cancellation hard to square: Disney had approved another season, then reversed course.
That reversal is where the business logic gets murky. Abdul-Mateen II said he was told the cancellation had something to do with viewership numbers, but he was never told what those numbers were. Without that detail, the decision reads less like a clean performance call than a retreat from a project that had already cleared an earlier internal hurdle.
For Abdul-Mateen II, the episode fits the rhythm of a career that has already moved between high-profile film and television work. He previously won an Emmy for Watchmen and was Tony-nominated for Topdog/Underdog, and he recently starred in the Netflix series Man on Fire, which came out in April. He will soon be seen with Brad Pitt in David Fincher's The Adventures of Cliff Booth.
He said the cancellation was a lesson in life, one more example of how quickly things can change in the business. He added that he is glad to still have a reason to talk about the show and represent it. What remains unanswered is the simplest question of all: if Wonder Man was popular enough to earn a second-season renewal, what viewership figure was enough to erase it?
