No WONDER, MAN? MARVEL’s renewal reversed…

Brand New Day may be getting all the headlines, but mere days after a superhero celebration at SDCC, Marvel has quietly cancelled plans for a second season of its surprise tv hit Wonder Man…

The series featured Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams a struggling actor who gets the chance to audition for the role of Wonder Man, an in-universe remake of a pulpy film hero he loved to watch as a child. He’s helped – somewhat – by Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley) a veteran, but past-his-prime actor whose most recent claim to fame was being a hapless frontman for the criminal mastermind known as ‘The Mandarin’. (MCU fans will remember his appearance that from the Iron Man movies. What Simon doesn’t know is that ‘Damage Control’, a low-profile government agency with a remit to keep an eye on super-powered individuals, has blackmailed Slattery into getting proof that Williams has enhanced abilities.

It was a very untraditional Marvel series, foregoing the often big set-pieces and costumes for a more nuanced character-driven look at the film-industry (Think The Player with more firepower). Outside Daredevil: Born Again and Loki, it was also one of the few Marvel/Disney+ shows to get a proposed second run.

The series did remarkably well with critics and audiences alike who liked being wrong-footed by their expectations. Despite a nice book-ending to the first run, Marvel announced back in March that both main actors would be back in their roles for the second season. Now it appears they have reversed that decision.

“Word just dropped that Wonder Man won’t be coming back for Season 2,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II wrote on Instagram on Thursday. “(And if you don’t knowww, now ya knoww!) That’s life, right? Everything will shake out. I wanted to say thank you to everybody who WATCHED the show, ENJOYED the show, and SHARED that they enjoyed the show in some way or other. The show worked. And that’s my favorite thing about it. I could see it on the faces of the Youtube reactors (because I watched along with y’all this time. Shoutout to y’all) and I can see in the messages I get saying how the show reminded some of you not to give up, and I feel it in the genuine love shared when I bump into some of you all during the day. So, thinking of you all today. I’m glad we got to be a part of something cool. Thank you for watching… And uhh… See you at the EMMYS.”

It is not known whether the characters will reappear somewhere else in the MCU…