Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on Wonder Man’s Cancellation

In July, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was on a set, hanging out at craft services, snacking on some cranberry applesauce, when he got a text message from his publicist: “Congratulations on your second Emmy nomination.”

Abdul-Mateen was shocked. Though his show Wonder Man was well reviewed, it wasn’t exactly considered an Emmy frontrunner. And so Abdul-Mateen hadn’t even been aware that nominations were happening that day. “It wasn’t on my radar,” he tells Little Gold Men. “I wasn’t checking in the same way that I was the first time, and that has really allowed me to have a beautiful experience with this whole thing, because I experienced it as a gift.”

On the Disney+ Marvel show, Abdul-Mateen played Simon Williams, an aspiring actor who desperately wants to star in a remake of the film Wonder Man. He also happens to have superpowers, which he has to keep under wraps if he wants to work as an actor.

The part meant a lot to Abdul-Mateen. “I did that job for all of the right reasons, the reasons in my heart, and I had a great time doing that job,” the actor says. “I’m just glad to still have an occasion to talk about the show and to represent the show.”

Just a couple weeks after the Emmy nominations were announced, Abdul-Mateen was hit with another surprise—and this time it was a disappointing one. Disney, which had previously greenlit a second season of Wonder Man, had reversed course and canceled the show. Fans were disappointed and confused by the news, but Abdul -Mateen has been taking it in stride. “I understand that that’s the nature of this business —there’s highs and lows,” he says. “As my favorite playwright, August Wilson, says in one of his plays: ‘You got to take the crookeds with the straights.’ That’s the way that it goes, and so business and life move on.”

Abdul-Mateen delivered a charming, funny, and towering performance on the show, which arrived during one of his busiest years to date. He also starred in the Netflix series Man on Fire, which came out in April, and will soon be seen with Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth, the sequel to Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.

Abdul-Mateen, who previously won an Emmy for his role on HBO’s Watchmen and was Tony-nominated for Topdog/Underdog, talks to Vanity Fair about his show’s sudden cancellation, his newest hobby, and being kinder to himself.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Vanity Fair: It’s very meta that Wonder Man was a show about this heartbreak in show business. And here is the show being canceled.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: It’s a lesson in life. It’s so close to what real life is. You have just this guy, Simon, who finally had his dreams come true, but we saw him overcome after all of his attempts of getting close and then not closing the deal. Many people have that experience in real life. The cancellation of the show was just another one of those examples.

Did you get a specific reason for the cancellation?

Yes, I did. I was told that it had something to do with the viewership numbers. I wasn’t told what those numbers were, but ultimately, for whatever reason it was, I think they decided that it didn’t make sense for business, and that’s the decision that we live with and we keep on marching forward.

How much had you talked about where it would go next season?

I stayed away from that. I think we have fantastic writers. They did a great job of setting the tone for season one. So I had my hopes and my dreams about where I wanted the character to go for season two. I was very interested in telling the story of Simon, who we watched pursue everything he’s always wanted. And then I think, for me, the interesting question to explore is: Well, what are you going to do when you finally get it? What do you do when you finally get everything that you’ve always wanted? And for a guy like Simon to get fame and notoriety and a little bit of power, he has a big heart, but he also has an ego. He also wants to be a star.

[Cocreator] Andrew Guest mentioned in his video about the cancellation that fans were having conversations about “the kind of stories that we’re prioritizing.” There’s been online discourse between the cancellation of this and Mahershala Ali’s frustration about the Blade film. Your own production company focuses on telling more Black and inclusive stories. Do you feel like there is a problem with what is and isn’t being greenlit or supported?

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. 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. 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.

In the first moments of the first episode, Simon is doing these actor warm-ups. How close is that to how you are before an audition?

That’s probably an amalgamation of all of my insight about being an actor and picking and choosing from a lot of the more funny, quirky things that we do. I really did wanna give insight into what it’s like to be a working actor, and I know a lot of people looked at that and they said, Yes, that’s what we do. The process can look very strange. Now, the difference between my process and a lot of Simon’s process is meant to get rid of his nerves. All of that shaking out, he’s getting his body warm, but he’s really in there just psyching himself up and trying to get out the nerves. My process looks more like taking the time to warm my body up, and my process is a lot more intentional and specific in comparison to what Simon is doing. Simon’s a nervous wreck.

Are there other aspects of him that are very much you?

The way that Simon takes up the space in that first episode when he’s asking questions, I’m not that bad. I promise I’m not that bad. But I do get what I need. I do take what I need, and if something doesn’t make sense, I will ask questions. I like to size up a scene and take the space that I need in order to do my job.

This role of Wonder Man is tied to his whole ambition to be an actor. Have you had an audition where it’s like you felt like you were meant to play this role?

Heck no! I’m telling you, I really can’t stress like that. I have experience with roles that turn out to be gifts in that way. Simon was one of those roles that turned out to be a dream role. Doctor Manhattan [in Watchmen] was one of those roles that turned out to be a dream role. Bobby Seale [in The Trial of the Chicago 7] was the same. I did a play called Topdog/Underdog, where I played a character named Booth. That one turned out to be a dream role. There’s a couple things out there that I would like to do, but I don’t like the idea of needing something as bad as Simon needs things.

But it makes you feel so sympathetic for Simon because we know what it’s like to want something so bad.

Absolutely. Look, I still know what it’s like to want something. A decade ago, when I was in graduate school, I wanted so badly everything that I have right now. I wanted a career; I wanted people to know my name. I wanted awards. I wanted to do movies. I wanted to be a star. And at the same time, I was in a classroom at Connecticut in graduate school feeling like nobody knows who I am in this big world. I felt like I had so much to offer and that nobody knew. My perspective was that as soon as I get a chance, all I need is one person to see me, all I need is one person to believe in me, and that’s the part of my experience that’s relatable to Simon’s journey.

You’ve had such a unique journey because you studied architecture; you were a city planner before you really became a full-time actor. Do you ever wonder about if you’d stayed on that path?

Yes, all the time! Look, I was excited to wear my little suits to work every day, and I really liked that world. I don’t know where I would’ve found the space to get my creative outlet out, and I don’t know where I would’ve found the space in my life to be silly and to create, but I do think part of my personality is built such that I was always on my way to where I’m headed. Not to say that I would’ve arrived here or been in this same position, but wherever it is that I’m going, even from here on out, I think I’ve always been on my way there.

Do you do anything that is a hobby that’s still related to architecture?

I’ve been painting more recently. I do and I did draw. I’m really trying to carve out more time in my own day-to-day to be able to build my paint studio and to paint.

What kinds of painting do you do?

I’m working on something right now, which is my understanding of how everything works. Most of my paintings, they come as a result of me trying to articulate a thought, or me trying to figure out how something works. I don’t even realize that I’m making art while I’m doing it. I’m just trying to work out an idea, and usually that idea takes some sort of diagrams or some sort of chart or something that only I understand.

You mentioned Topdog/Underdog earlier, your first Broadway show. What muscle did it let you stretch that’s different from what you get to do in TV and film?

That let me feed the ego, if I’m being honest.

The live applause from the audience?

Not necessarily the audience, but the lights. To have an audience, and then that stage and that light, and to have that audience sort of in the palm of my hand. I think it was really just the rush, and there is a sense of play and freedom and exploration and danger. I also did that play after over a year of saying no to everything and to not working because I needed to reenergize myself. I needed to get a life and to sort of balance myself, and I found that play, and the first job I did after that play was Wonder Man.

You typically wait three years before revisiting your own work. Why?

I used to wait about three years. I’m much kinder to myself now these days, but in the last year, I’ve been able to check my stuff out. I would just be nervous about what it is that I would see. Usually, I may have watched some of my work before that three-year window, but usually it takes about three years in order to be kind to myself, in order to be gracious and to say, Oh, like, I see what you were working with. These days I have a much more healthy relationship to myself and my art and what it is that I do, and understanding that I’m not all that important.