Yahya Abdul-Mateen II shares his take on the online discourse over Disney and Marvel’s decision to cancel Wonder Man after one season, and the continued postponement of the Blade reboot.
In a new interview, the actor is asked about the conjecture that fans are making about the Disney+ series and the Marvel superhero film, both led by Black men.
“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,” Abdul-Mateen told Vanity Fair. “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.”
He continued, “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 Marvel renewing Wonder Man for a second season, it recently announced that the studio had walked back on that renewal and the series would not move forward past Season 1.
Abdul-Mateen also recently earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the Disney+ series.
Similarly, the Blade reboot, which had Mahershala Ali attached to star, has been stuck in development for years, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige recently stated he felt “like a gigantic loser and failure” for not being able to get it done.
Ali subsequently called out Marvel and said that if the studio “wanted to do it, we would’ve done it,” adding, “I have to move on, and I have moved on.”
Marvel first confirmed the Blade reboot with Ali back in 2019, but the project has since been met with multiple delays, including directors Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange’s exits from the film and the 2023 WGA strike.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );