Disney+ pulls the plug on "Wonder Man" despite earlier renewal
"Wonder Man" was cancelled by Disney+ after one season, even though the streaming service announced a second-season renewal in March.
Disney+ has cancelled the Marvel-linked series "Wonder Man," Variety reported, despite a renewal announcement made in March. Sources said a writers' room for the second season was never assembled and the show's writers have been released to work on other projects.
The show starred Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams and Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, with a supporting cast that included X Mayo, Demetrius Grosse, Zlatko Burić, Arian Moayed and Olivia Thirlby. It was created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest, with Cretton directing the first two episodes and Guest serving as showrunner.
The first season received a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In a Variety review, Alison Herman wrote that Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley "make their characters equally ridiculous and romantic, urged on by a motivation more intimate and individual than saving the world."
Abdul-Mateen earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series, becoming the only live-action performer to receive an Emmy nod for both a Marvel and a DC project.
Disney has not disclosed viewership numbers, though the series appeared at number eight on Nielsen's streaming top-10 originals chart for the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1 before dropping off the following week. An insider indicated that while the series will not continue, its characters could appear in future Marvel productions.
The cancellation is notable because most Marvel live-action series on Disney+ have been limited to a single season, with a few exceptions such as "Loki" and the upcoming "Vision Quest" spinoff.