Actors are a sensitive lot. They're also insecure about where their next gig might come from.
It's understandable. The business is brutal. The competition is fierce. And audiences are notoriously fickle. This critic once chatted with William H. Macy who seemed nervous about his immediate future.
He's the consummate character actor with more than 150 screen credits, and he still wasn't confident about what came next.
It's Hollywood Normal.
So it's easy to process what "Wonder Man" star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II said about his show's sudden cancellation in that light. He's frustrated. Angry. Sad. Disappointed.
Except the rising star added something else to the mix that felt like a blast from the past. The George Floyd-era, to be exact.
Abdul Mateen opened up to Vanity Fair about the show's cancellation. The Disney+ series earned favorable reviews and landed him a Best Actor Emmy nomination, a first for the MCU. The Mouse House initially approved a second season before later pulling the plug.
Did race enter the equation? The black actor suggested just that.
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.
Quality resources, you say? That's a direct nod to black activists insisting companies invest in their community. It's why those BLM coffers grew so large in 2020, the year of "fiery but mostly peaceful" protests. How did that work out?
Does the star have a point?
Disney+ has trotted out a number of MCU shows with diverse leads in recent years. Think "Ironheart," "Ms. Marvel" and "Moon Knight." That's progress, no? Except none earned a second season, nor did they hit the ratings jackpot. And MCU shows don't come cheap.
The MCU also delivered one of the biggest superhero franchises in recent memory with "Black Panther" (2018). The film's star, Chadwick Boseman, died at the shockingly young age of 43, but the studio committed to not one but two sequels without him.
It's ironic that both Disney and the MCU have been attacked in recent years for going woke and pushing diversity above entertainment. True? False? A smattering of both? Even former CEO Bob Iger said he wanted to take a knee on the culture war fighting.
And, by and large, the Mouse House did.
Either way, that cosmetic effort didn't protect Disney from the star's accusations. And, to be fair, Hollywood had done a lousy job in the past of giving everyone a seat at the table. How much has changed over time?
Abdul-Mateen isn't dumb. He understands his comments will leave a mark behind the scenes at Disney. They won't land with the authority they would have back in 2020, but chances are a studio type will think twice before cancelling any project with him attached moving forward.
