Variety has learned that Disney+ has cancelled Wonder Man after one season. The series, which premiered in January, scored a Season 2 renewal in March after rave reviews from fans and critics alike (it has 91% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Season 1 ended with something of a cliffhanger when Simon Williams broke Trevor Slattery out of the Department of Damage Control's Supermax Prison. While Season 2 plot details were never revealed, we know one idea was to explore what became of actor Josh Gad after he vanished into Doorman and never returned.
According to the trade, "a writers' room for Season 2 was never opened, and the show's writers have been released to pursue other projects."
Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest created Wonder Man, with the latter serving as showrunner. Cretton, who helmed this weekend's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed the first two episodes.
The series also landed Yahya Abdul-Mateen II an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.
While Disney didn't release any official viewership data for Wonder Man, it made only one appearance in the Nielsen streaming top 10 charts. It debuted at #8 and then slipped out of that the following week. Daredevil: Born Again has also rarely fought its way into that list, so it's now hard not to wonder whether Season 3 will be its last.
Elsewhere in the report, it's said, "According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, while 'Wonder Man' is not proceeding with Season 2, the characters featured in the series could still appear in other Marvel projects in the future."
It's possible that Cretton and Guest couldn't figure out how to continue the story and, rather than delivering a subpar product, they may have decided not to move forward with more episodes. A big part of the series was exploring Simon's love of acting, and continuing the story after he became an A-list star—and a wanted fugitive—would have turned Wonder Man into a very different show.
Outside of Loki and Daredevil: Born Again, MCU TV shows have only received one season. Neither Cretton nor Guest have commented on the news as we write this.
"Yahya Abdul-Mateen II steals the show in this delightfully original two-hander about friendship, acting, and being true to yourself," we wrote in our review. "Wonder Man is the cure to superhero fatigue and the most original MCU TV series since WandaVision."
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.