Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has a theory about Marvel's 'Wonder Man' cancellation

'Wonder Man' star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on the show's cancellation Two weeks after being nominated for an Emmy for his leading role in Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen discovered out that the series had been cancelled.

Key points

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II poses for a portrait on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, in New York.
• Back in 2012, talking regarding all the different skills and accents I could do and things like that.
• Abdul-Mateen notes he's still not sure what happened – but he sees a pattern in Marvel canceling Black-led projects.
• He grew up the youngest of six children in New Orleans and Oakland, then studied architecture at UC Berkeley.
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II isn't a struggling actor anymore, he just plays one on TV.

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Yahya Abdul-Mateen II poses for a portrait on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, in New York. Abdul-Mateen is nominated for an Emmy Award for Wonder Man. Andy Kropa)/Invision/AP hide caption.

Two weeks after actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was nominated for an Emmy for his leading performance in the Marvel series Wonder Man, Disney confirmed the comedy would not return for a second season. Abdul-Mateen notes he's still not sure what happened – but he sees a pattern in Marvel canceling Black-led projects.

"When you look at the history of those projects and when you put them all together, there's no way around it, " he notes. "It does not look good. It does not look like good business. And it looks like it's certainly not favorable to its Black creatives."

In the case of Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen feels like the show needed "a little bit more time to cook, because I think Black audiences usually find out and gravitate to the niche projects a little slower."

Abdul-Mateen's Wonder Man character is a struggling actor with a secret. He has real superpowers – but if anyone finds out, he won't just lose his career, he will lose his freedom.

Abdul-Mateen's path to acting was a circuitous one. He grew up the youngest of six children in New Orleans and Oakland, then studied architecture at UC Berkeley. After graduating, he worked as a city planner until a layoff sent him to the Yale School of Drama. He booked his first major role in 2015, and was nominated for a Tony for his Broadway debut, and then went on to win an Emmy for his role in the HBO series Watchmen. Marvel's 'Wonder Man' is a low-key, low-stakes buddy comedy.

And while the cancellation of Wonder Man hurts, he notes, "I will. Always come back to the point that I'm so thankful and blessed to have been able to be a part of something that was special, that is special."

As for the upcoming Emmy Awards, there's one actor he's really hoping to cross paths with: "If I meet Steve Carell, then that'll be real dope, " he notes. "I grew up watching The Office. I've watched every episode so plenty of times." And he's not "too cool" to ask for a photo. On his Wonder Man character, Simon, a struggling actor.

Simon is an over-thinker. Simon is looking for the traps. I'm looking for opportunities. So I'm different from Simon in that way. So I prepare. And that's the trick. So I do the homework and then I'm not afraid to let go of the homework. The homework is there to backing me, not to decide what it is that I'm gonna do.

Actors, man. We do all types of things. I was telling stories. I was lying on my resume. Back in 2012, talking regarding all the different skills and accents I could do and things like that. This was when I was just getting little jobs in the Bay Area, little acting jobs. And I was over-exaggerating. I had maybe played the bongos two times and remarked, yeah, I could do that. So I put it on my resume. I may have done an accent in class one time. So I remarked, you know, that wasn't too hard. I put that on my resume, you know, but that's what you obtained to do. You obtained to stack the cards in your favor.

On how he discovered acting by accident in college at Berkeley.

Notably, a teammate of mine, you know, dared me to take an acting class. One day we were at practice making fun of the coaches and things like that on the team-building exercise, and I obtained up in front of everybody and did an impersonation, everybody was laughing. The next day, they were still talking regarding it, and my teammate, he dared me to take a theater class, and I was looking for an straightforward class to take, and I auditioned and took the class, and didn't take it seriously, in the sense that I did all the work, but I applied to be late to class, and things like that. I wasn't the best representation of what a top student should be. But I always knew my lines, I rehearsed for real. I don't know how present I was, but when it was my turn to work, I always put in the work and I always took the work seriously.

After that semester. I just ran into in the building one day, and she remarked, "Hey, you're really good. And I hope you take some more classes." And I wasn't necessarily intending to. But I was like, "Oh, I didn't know that. Maybe I will." So the next class that I took, I discovered something that I thought would be a good opportunity to work on my stutter. And then that just brought me deeper into this world. On how acting supported his stutter.

I didn't stutter when I acted. I never stuttered with a script. I rehearsed the words, so it's just really all muscle memory.

When I am not around individuals who already have the built-in patience or who can laugh with me, stuttering is frustrating, especially when I'm not around my family. If I were to stutter right now, sometimes you just wouldn't be able to hear anything. I just wouldn't be able to say the word. You may have radio silence for regarding eight seconds and I'm not even making sounds. Other times I sound like the car engine trying to start and that's when I'm being stubborn and just trying to push it through.

On going to 13 different schools as a kid.

There were six of us, so a lot of that sometimes was regarding trying to find whatever was convenient for my parents and the best fit for our education and things like that. I didn't even notice it. Since there was so much love in my home, you know? So whatever now could be perceived as some type of instability or anything like that. We were shielded from that, you know? And my parents did a fantastic, fantastic job. When we went to different schools, we were looking for a better education, and like I say.

I think it's created me more observant. I enter into a new environment, sort of quiet, you know, looking around and sort of calculating and doing the math on my surroundings. After a while, I take up a little more space, and then after a little bit. High school was really where I sort of socially blossomed. Like in the ninth grade, I'd sort of gained my confidence. But what I did have by the ninth grade was my individuality. I was myself.

On growing up in an interfaith home – his mother is Christian, his father converted to Islam.

We knew God. We were introduced to God in two different ways, you know. Sometimes we'd go to the mass, sometimes we'd fast for Ramadan. We would pray with my father five times a day. And then other times we'd go to the church and we'd sing in the choir and we had our own little children's choir at home and things like that. What it did for me was it offered me a reverence for God and an appreciation for God and a know-how to secure to him in my life. Since I had parents that provided me that example of respecting God.

For context, the cool thing regarding having a solid upbringing and going to 13 different schools is that I secured a lot of time to develop my own sense of self. I like who I am. That's enough for me. So if I can find something interesting to do. This person cares what anybody else thinks? I like myself. I like my work in a healthy way. And that gives me enough confidence to go and pursue what it is. That excites me with the opportunities that I say yes to, the opportunities that are in front of me.

Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakdundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.

For now, yahya Abdul-Mateen II has a theory about Marvel' s ' Wonder Man' cancellation remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.