RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The A.V. Club — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 14 sources
Let’s pour another one out for old Trev. After making his miraculous return to the MCU in Shang-Chi , Sir Ben Kingsley’s flailing actor is once again looking for work. Disney has reneged on its order for another season of Wonder Man and canceled the show , per Variety . On the strength of good reviews and reportedly good viewership, Marvel greenlit Wonder Man for season two in March. However, in the last few weeks, presumably after seeing the trailer for Avengers: Doomsday , Marvel head Kevin Feige has instituted a new “quality over quantity” strategy, and apparently, Wonder Man fell into the “quantity” bucket. Awkwardly, the company did this while the series’ co-creator, Destin Daniel Cretton, is busy selling his latest directorial effort, a little movie called Spider-Man: Brand New Day .
Canceling Cretton’s show the weekend Brand New Day bows has shades of Disney’s cancellation of the Buffy reboot. Last March, Disney canceled the reboot the weekend of the premiere of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s new film Ready Or Not 2 and the Oscars, where Chloé Zhao, who directed the Buffy pilot, was nominated for several awards. The pilot, Ready Or Not 2 , and Hamnet were either produced or distributed by one a Disney property. At the time, Gellar said , “For them to call us on the Friday of what should have been Chloé’s victory lap for an incredible film, and my world premiere of something that I worked very hard for is…That says something.” What does it say? From the sounds of it, it says that it doesn’t matter how many people were depending on the work or how good that work is or that the director of the Cinematic Universe-saving new Spider-Man movie made the show, Disney does not care and will use the cover of a bigger title to bury the news that a whole bunch of craftspeople and performers are once again out of a job. The news comes weeks after Disney reportedly laid off several hundred Pixar employees as the fruits of their labor, Toy Story 5 , made $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.