With his latest MCU theatrical outing crossing the $1B mark in record time, Destin Daniel Cretton is left in the dark about his canceled Marvel series.
The Wonder Man co-creator admits he doesn’t “fully understand the why” after Disney and Marvel canceled the series, four months after renewing the show for Season 2 at Disney+.
“I love that show to death,” he told The Wrap. “If it were up to me, we would be making that show. And I do believe that if – and I know this sounds weird – but if it were up to Kevin [Feige], we would be doing that show.”
Cretton continued, “And I’m just talking, I don’t fully understand the business of streaming, but if the business was right, we would be making that show because I know [Feige] loves that show as much as I do. It’s a bummer. I’m heartbroken about it. But I need to fully understand the why.”
As some fans have speculated that the cancellation is to pave the way for a movie, Cretton said the potential for a feature adaptation is an “interesting question,” but doesn’t know if the viewership warrants that, since Disney+ doesn’t share streaming data. “Because then we can clearly know if it’s a success or not. It’s just very clear numbers,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Cretton’s co-creator and showrunner Andrew Guest insisted “there is no movie in the works,” and the cancellation “is not a marketing stunt,” noting that Disney and Marvel made an internal decision that the show “didn’t make sense for them.”
“And Destin’s schedule—no one’s schedule was an issue. Yahya [Abdul-Mateen II], Destin, Sir Ben [Kingsley] and I all loved making this show, all felt passionately about continuing to do it, and were eager to,” added Guest. “Contracts were signed, schedules were cleared, writers room was supposed to start this month, production was supposed to begin early next year.”
Based on the Marvel comics character Simon Williams/Wonder Man, Guest and Cretton co-created the series that debuted in January, earning Abdul-Mateen an Emmy nomination. Meanwhile, Cretton’s latest MCU directorial outing Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered Friday, a day after Wonder Man was canceled.
After Marvel initially renewed the series for Season 2 in March, the studio walked back that decision and canceled the show last week.
Wonder Man follows aspiring actor Simon Williams (Abdul-Mateen), who is struggling to get his career off the ground. During a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery (Kingsley), an actor whose biggest roles may be well behind him, Simon learns that legendary director Von Kovak (Zlatko Buric) is remaking the superhero film Wonder Man. These two actors at opposite ends of their careers doggedly pursue life-changing roles in this film as audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry, per the official description.
Season 1 launched with all eight episodes on January 27, bringing in 618M minutes viewed in its opening week, per Nielsen. That put it at No. 8 among streaming originals for the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1, though the title appeared to skew older with 41% of viewing concentrated in the 35-49 age range — more than any other Top 10 title that week.
