Is Marvel turning away from heroes of color?
Is Marvel turning away from heroes of color?
Recent Disney+ content decisions, including the unrenewal of ‘Wonder Man,’ leaves room for discussion.
Throughout its history, Disney has made many decisions that demonstrate its commitment to diversity, whether in storytelling or in corporate policies. But in a political environment where pro-diversity efforts have been labeled by many in power as wrong or evil, even Disney has pulled back on promoting diversity.
There’s room to wonder whether that pullback is now affecting the content strategy for popular Disney-owned franchises, like Marvel. New data from Luminate gives more context for the cancelation of Marvel’s “Wonder Man” on Disney+, and leaves room for discussion on whether the company is making a conscious decision to shelve projects led by performers of color.
“Wonder Man” was originally released on Disney+ in January and seemed to perform well at first. Indeed, the service announced in March that “Wonder Man” had been renewed for a second season; the show follows aspiring actor Simon Williams, a superpowered individual who hides his gifts as he tries to make a name for himself in Hollywood. Up for the role of his life, Williams turns to an unlikely mentor in Trevor Slattery — the actor who once fooled the world by pretending to be the international terrorist The Mandarin.
The series stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Simon Williams, with Ben Kingsley returning as Trevor Slattery. It was well received by both audiences and critics, hitting a 91% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 87% audience score. It was one of my favorite streams of the first half of 2026, but apparently that wasn’t enough to prevent Disney from un-renewing the show in July.
Abdul-Mateen was asked about the cancelation by Vanity Fair in a recent interview. He explains that he was told by Disney that viewership numbers didn’t add up for a second season, though he wasn’t given specific details on what those numbers were. When asked about online frustration regarding the cancelation of the show, as well as the disintegration of Mahershala Ali’s “Blade” movie, Abdul-Mateen noted that it’s not a good look for Disney to continue scuttling projects led by actors of color.
“I think the optics are obvious,” he said. “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.”
New data from Luminate gives further insight into the viewership of “Wonder Man.” Initial viewership numbers for the show are quite promising; it was the second-most-watched Disney+ original season by both minutes streamed and estimated season views in the United States in the first half of 2026, according to the data. “Wonder Man” received 7 million streaming views, and 1.9 billion minutes streamed — more than “Percy Jackson & The Olympians” Season 2. That show has already been renewed for a third season, despite finishing behind “Wonder Man” in Luminate’s rankings.
Digging a little deeper into the data offers a more nuanced picture of the “Wonder Man” cancelation, however. The show’s retention rate shows a 48% drop-off in viewership from premiere to finale in its first 12 weeks of availability, meaning 52% of those who started watching actually finished. Luminate’s analysis found that Disney+ titles typically need to retain at least 53% of their viewership over the course of a season to be considered a surefire renewal candidate. For Disney’s bean counters, that missing 1% may have been the end of the discussion for the renewal of “Wonder Man.”
But viewed against the backdrop of other recent decisions from Disney and Marvel, it’s hard not to wonder if there’s more to the decision to cancel “Wonder Man” than just soft viewership. Disney+ has also opted not to move forward with additional seasons of “Ironheart” or “Ms. Marvel,” two other Marvel series centering on heroes of color. To be sure, Disney+ has pulled back on commissions of Marvel TV shows in general. But of the forthcoming Marvel releases, both on Disney+ and in theaters, only one — “Black Panther 3,” due in theaters in late 2028 — currently features a non-white hero in a solo adventure.
Disney has also pulled back on diversity and inclusion programs on a corporate level. In 2025, the company replaced language online related to diversity initiatives like “Reimagine Tomorrow” and softened content warnings on titles like “Peter Pan” that feature racial stereotypes that were more commonly accepted in the past. Those decisions came in light of a wider push, led by the Trump administration, to dismantle DEI policies at companies around the country.
It begs the question of whether Disney is truly following the money by canceling shows like “Wonder Man,” or if it’s trying to appeal to a segment of American culture. Without more insight from Disney’s highest-level decision-makers — insight that’s hard to come by, since such executives rarely make themselves available for interviews — it will be hard to know for sure. But the optics of the situation aren’t in Disney’s favor, especially for a company that once took so much pride in promoting diversity.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”