When Wonder Man first dropped, I went in not knowing what to expect. While I knew Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley were leading the project, I wasn’t sure it’d be for me. But by the end of Season 1, I had completely fallen in love with the friendship between Simon and Trevor. So I was incredibly disappointed when Disney reversed course and canceled Wonder Man. Now, I'm even sadder about it after Abdul-Mateen explained his “dreams” for where he wanted the next season of Wonder Man to go.
Though he’s disappointed, Abdul-Mateen has nothing but love for Simon, the series, and creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. During an interview with Vanity Fair, he gave them and the writers their flowers, too, while also explaining where he would have liked to see Simon's story go next:
I think we have fantastic writers. They did a great job of setting the tone for season one. So I had my hopes and my dreams about where I wanted the character to go for season two. I was very interested in telling the story of Simon, who we watched pursue everything he’s always wanted. And then I think, for me, the interesting question to explore is: Well, what are you going to do when you finally get it? What do you do when you finally get everything that you’ve always wanted? And for a guy like Simon to get fame and notoriety and a little bit of power, he has a big heart, but he also has an ego. He also wants to be a star.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who would have watched that. For many fans, Wonder Man was the perfect return of what they loved about Marvel. It was a story grounded in the characters and their friendship. While it explored Simon's powers, it was also just about two people trying to find their way. And many of us would have loved to see more of that story, especially after that pleasantly sweet finale, which found Simon FINALLY getting to live out his dream, before choosing to help his friend.
Overall, it did surprise me when I learned that the cancellation had “something to do with viewership numbers," as Abdul-Mateen put it. According to the House of Mouse, they didn’t feel the views would justify the production cost of a Season 2. And after the cancellation of the Mahershala Ali-led Blade movie, there's been speculation about both projects not moving forward. Some even accused Marvel of not prioritizing diverse stories. Abdul-Mateen addressed fans’ concerns and, in his opinion, what should be done next:
I think the optics are obvious. If I’m a big business, if I’m Disney, if I’m Marvel, I don’t want to be attached to these optics. So it should be a priority to change that narrative and to do what it takes to responsibly change that narrative with quality stories, with quality resources. I felt that our show did have quality story, did have quality resources, did have quality actors and people, and did produce quality results that the viewers responded to positively, that the voters responded to positively. So our show does deserve some study and some real, hard information about why a show like this did not continue forward, because it had all of the ingredients that one would want in a show.
Despite the cancellation, the actor feels proud to continue to have an opportunity to “talk about the show and to represent the show.” He has no ill will toward Disney or Marvel for the decision to end the series, but does feel there’s a responsibility to “change [the] narrative with quality stories.”
It would have been interesting to see where Wonder Man Season 2 would have taken Simon and Trevor after they flew off. And I really love the ideas Abdul-Mateen has. While we may not see what happens next, we can still rewatch their best bromance moments with a Disney+ subscription.
And there isn’t currently any news about whether we’ll see Simon or Trevor again. But given Marvel’s tendency to bring people back, I’m hopeful they'll pop back up in the MCU. If we can see Loki again after a few deaths, nothing is impossible. So Abdul-Mateen may just get to see his "dreams" come true.
