Sigh. With Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again it looked like Marvel might finally be getting it. Sure, the huge, lumbering mega-franchise on the big screen, with millions of dollars of associated costs, might need a slightly risk-averse mindset. We get that. But with one of the biggest streaming services in the world in your corner, you could use that platform to get some freedom to be a bit experimental.
Daredevil: Born Again allowed the Marvel Universe to go somewhere dark, violent, and more challenging. Wonder Man allowed it to explore some meta comedy. Wonder Man was also a show where many people watched it out of sheer curiosity, and found themselves finding it interesting and enjoyable.
It was a hit with critics, scoring 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and 75/100 on Metacritic score. Lead actor Abdul-Mateen even earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.
So, of course, Marvel / Disney have learned nothing because they can learn nothing. The show was announced as renewed earlier this year, but then the writers’ room was never opened, and the talent was released to seek other projects.
Now, Variety reports that the show has been fully cancelled on Disney+.
It was created by Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of the new Spider-Man movie. It starred Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Ben Kingsley as Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery, navigating the world of Hollywood television production while hiding the fact that one of them had superhero abilities.
Sources say the characters featured in the series could still appear in other Marvel projects in the future, so they want to have their cake and eat it.
