“Wonder Man” was a particularly meta venture for Marvel Studios. Set in Hollywood and centered on Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a struggling actor with some inconvenient superpowers, the show felt like a sly peek behind the scenes of the superhero movie biz. So, the news that “Wonder Man” Season 2 has been canceled is a good opportunity to look closer at the behind-the-scenes reasons for Marvel’s shifting strategy.
Earlier this year, “Wonder Man” co-creator and showrunner Andrew Guest said that the show was “one of the last projects in the door of the previous iteration of the Marvel Disney+ experiment, where they were saying yes to many things.” In the first few years of Disney launching its own streaming service, huge amounts of money were being thrown at original content. It was essentially wartime spending: Disney+ was battling for subscribers in the streaming wars against other fierce contenders like Netflix and HBO Max.
But now that things have settled down and Disney has carved out a comfortable amount of territory (a combined 183 million subscribers across Disney+ and Hulu, as of June 2025), the spending spree has slowed significantly in search of something more sustainable. And when it comes to flagship franchises like Marvel, there’s a case to be made that live-action TV shows might actually harm the bottom line on the movie side of things.
In his most recent newsletter, industry insider Jeff Sneider wrote, “I’m told that [‘Wonder Man’ Season 2’s cancellation] is part of a larger strategy to effectively exit the live-action TV business. Not entirely … but for the most part.” Here’s why Marvel is shifting direction.
Why Marvel Studios is cutting back on live-action TV shows
Near the start of 2023, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said that the “pace” at which shows would be released was going to change, admitting that, “It is harder to hit the zeitgeist when there’s so much product out there.” Then, recently returned Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged that Marvel had been stretched thin by the demand for rapid content growth. “Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention,” said Iger. “That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.”
The cause of what, exactly? Well, while early Disney+ shows like “WandaVision,” “Loki,” and “Moon Knight” earned favorable reviews and generated a lot of discussion, the TV side of Marvel quickly began to experience diminishing returns. Iger’s comments came in the wake of “Secret Invasion” being panned by critics and fans alike. Even after the pace of Marvel shows slowed, new releases like “Echo” and “Ironheart” seemed to barely register as a blip on the radar. Meanwhile, movies whose stories followed directly on from Marvel shows — specifically, “The Marvels” and “Captain America: Brave New World” — disappointed at the box office.
The news of “Wonder Man” being canceled is disappointing for those of us who enjoyed the show, especially since Season 2 was only announced a few months ago. However, it’s not at all surprising. Now that Disney+ has an established subscriber base, there’s simply less need to entice new customers with expensive original content. And limiting the amount of Marvel content out there will (theoretically) drive more audiences into theaters for the big-screen releases.
Somehow, though, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) will return. He always does.
