BLADE & WONDER MAN CANCELED by Marvel: WTF Happened?

Blade's gone, Wonderman's canceled, and. it's our fault? What the is. happening with Blade and Wonderman? Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm. Jessica Clemens, and look, there's only. a few things I ask for in this world, and that's a full night's sleep, cuddles. from my cat, and a new Blade movie. And. it looks like I'm only getting two of. those things in the future. All jokes. aside, the same month Marvel announced a. Ghost Rider movie and revealed David. Johnson as the new Black Panther in. Black Panther 3. They've also confirmed. that Mahershala Ali's Blade is no longer. moving forward. And Wonderman season 2, which was reportedly greenlit just a few. months ago, has now been pulled from the. slate. So, in today's video, we're. breaking down exactly what happened with.

these two Marvel projects, where things. went wrong, and how Marvel's biggest. decisions are still and always have been. shaped and influenced by Disney. This. video is sponsored by Squarespace, the. all-in-one platform that makes launching. your own website a breeze. At the end of. July, Mahershala Ali confirmed he had. moved on from the long-delayed Blade. movie. And around the same time, Disney. Plus officially canceled Wonderman, a. show it had renewed for a second season. in March. Now, while Blade had arguably. been stuck in development hell for. nearly 5 years after its announcement, the movie was kind of cursed from the. jump. Between multiple production. delays, constantly shifting release. schedules, rumored creative.

disagreements, cast and directors. dropping all the time, three or four. different versions of the script, and. the WGA strikes, it's not surprising. that the project was nixed. At a certain. point, the real question isn't why it. was canceled, it becomes why did it take. so long to get there? And as for. Wonderman season 2, the situation is a. little bit more confusing. Despite. experiencing its own share of delays, the series still wrapped on time. It. earned strong reviews and currently sits. above 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yaya. Abdul-Mateen even received an Emmy. nomination for outstanding lead actor in. a comedy series. This is the second time. for both DC and Marvel. Even creators.

Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. are surprised by the recent decision, and everyone's just confused. So, when. it comes to Wonderman, the question. isn't whether the series succeeded. creatively, it absolutely did. It's what. changed between March and now that had. Disney Plus walking back on its own. season 2 renewal. So, let's begin with. what the happened to Blade. To. understand Blade's reboot and what went. wrong, you really have to understand. Blade's timeline. Blade went through. COVID, two guild strikes, faced three. release date changes, lost two. directors, and hired at least half a. dozen screenwriters. So, I mean, that.

already tells you a lot. So, let me take. you back. It's July 20th, 2019. We're at. San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel has taken. Hall H with the news about Black Widow, and two-time Academy Award winner. Mahershala Ali is announced to star in. the new Blade movie as Blade. That was 7. years ago, and to put that into. perspective for some of you, Blade was. announced before Disney Plus had even. launched. Then, for the next year and a. half, we basically get no updates. However, to be fair, the world was in, you know, the early stages of a global. pandemic. So, Marvel gets a little break. there. In February 2021, Marvel hired. Stacy Osei-Kuffour, who wrote for.

Watchmen and Pen 15, to write the film. No director yet on this movie, which. isn't unusual in Hollywood, but one of. Marvel's recurring problem is that they. often commit to projects years before. the creative team is fully assembled. In. this case of Blade, Marvel announced the. movie before it even figured out exactly. who would make it, or even what it would. look like. So, looking back at it, that. may be the big first hurdle the movie. never really overcame. In the next. month, they announced filming would. begin in September 2021, while they're. still searching for a director. But, luckily, by July, Bassam Tariq was in. early talks to direct Blade, and by the. end of September 2021, he started.

Everything seems like it's going. according to plan, right? Things are. moving forward, slowly but surely, and. in November of that same year, we get. the Blade cameo in Eternals, and Delroy. Lindo officially joins the cast. So, now. we're entering 2022, a huge time for. Marvel coming out of the pandemic and. coming into the pandemic. So, this year. alone, we get Doctor Strange in the. Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and. Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, I Am. Groot, and two Disney Plus special. presentations, Werewolf by Night and The. Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. That is nine projects releasing over 12. months, while they're still developing.

Blade, Armor Wars, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Echo, Agatha, formerly House. of Harkness, and Loki season two. Later. this year, they'll announce Wonder Man. and Vision Quest. That's a lot of. content, you guys, a lot, and remember. that. By the beginning of 2022, Blade's. team is already in Atlanta working on. pre-production, and Aaron Pierre is. talking about joining the cast, as well. Principal photography is slated to begin. by that fall, October 2022, and by July. they announced the release of Blade's. theatrical release, November 3rd, 2023. So solid, they're ready and we've been. ready. And only 3 months after revealing.

Blade's release window, Blade's director. pulls out. This is 2 months before they. were set to begin filming. Losing a. director after they've completed most of. pre-production isn't great, but it's. nothing new for Marvel. Doctor Strange. in the Multiverse of Madness lost Scott. Derrickson just 4 months before filming, with Sam Raimi pulling a Hail Mary and. stepping in to save the day. John Watts. also dropped Fantastic Four, which. eventually landed in the hands of Matt. Shakman. But Blade is different from. these people because Marvel was. committed to building this film around. black and brown creatives behind it. And. production already had an entire team. working in Atlanta. Additionally,

replacing the director isn't easy. Whoever stepped up next had to fit. Mahershala Ali's vision, Marvel's. vision, and Disney's expectations. Now, around this time rumors were spreading. that Beau DeMayo had been brought on as. a writer as early as May. Later to be. revealed along with Tadd Reid, he left. the project in September of 2022 as. well. Vanity Fair reported that he was. brought in to punch up the script. regardless, Beau at the time had become. very familiar as a creative voice within. Marvel, having worked on Moon Knight and. serving as the head writer for X-Men. '97. So while losing a director was a. major setback for this production, his. involvement as a writer kind of offered.

some reassurance to us as the fans and. to everybody working that the project. was still in capable hands. Now, as we. know, Marvel has since cut ties with. Beau DeMayo. However, during the. fallout, he shared his own claims. revealing how damning working on Blade. was. And to be clear, I'm not. corroborating his account or presenting. those claims as fact, but as more. reports and comments emerge from both. anonymous sources and people connected. to the production, it became harder to. view Blade's problems as simply creative. disagreements. It seemed like there were. a lot of problems happening behind the. scenes. So now without a director and. with the writing process still moving.

behind the scenes, Marvel temporarily. shuts down production in Atlanta while. searching for a new filmmaker and. continuing to develop the script. Alongside delays for Deadpool and. Wolverine, Fantastic Four, and other. Marvel movie projects, Disney announced. that Blade's release date would be. pushed from November 3rd, 2023 to. September 6th, 2024. Now, I can't. confirm that those other delays were. directly caused by Blade, but an. argument could be made that this film. production issues may have created a. ripple effect. Marvel's projects are. usually interconnected either. chronologically and or narratively. So, a delay in one corner of the MCU can.

impact the scheduling and positioning. and release strategy for the other films. moving forward, which I would assume. wouldn't make Disney happy. Then, less. than 2 weeks after the recent delay. announcement, they revealed that Yann. Demange is now set to be the new. director for Blade and Michael Starrbury. to pen a new script according to the. Hollywood Reporter. And just 1 month. later after that, it's announced that. Bob Chapek is stepping down as Disney. CEO and Bob Iger is returning. temporarily until they find his. replacement. Now, of course, we can't. say that this had a big play hurting. Blade, but the timing isn't helpful. because the shift in leadership at.

Disney was a big shift in Disney's. priorities. Disney was working under. like an expansion mindset. Remember how. I mentioned the amount of projects they. had planned to release in 2022? That's a. lot. That was a lot of Chapek's era. And. Bob Iger's strategy was immediately. cost-cutting, asking what's profitable. and how he constantly described these. things as quality over quantity, which. means Marvel's output is being. reevaluated, leadership attention would. shift again somewhere else, and of. course, less tolerance for bigger risks. If you've been sweltering under a heat. wave and just do not have the energy to. tinker with your website right now, we.

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3 years and 7 months since Blade was. announced to that day. At this point, you kind of just like we all kind of. lost hope. April 2023, Mia Goth joins. the cast in an undisclosed role and by. the end of the month, Nick Pizzolatto. signs on to co-write. Unfortunately, this was mere days before the WGA. strike. Marvel shuts down pre-production. during the writer strike and amid the. ongoing strikes, Disney is forced to. push back more film releases across. their entire calendar, including Blade. from September 6th, 2024 to now. Valentine's Day of 2025. Now, on paper,

this looks like a mess, but at the time, every production was dealing with the. effects of COVID and strikes. So, these. delays weren't like insane. Losing a. director 2 months before filming isn't. ideal, but it's also not new for the. world of Marvel because Marvel has. recovered from similar things before. So, despite setback after setback, Blade. still felt doable. After all, this is. Marvel. Once they announce a project, they rarely want to turn around and. admit defeat. It wouldn't become clear. until later that the problem wasn't just. the massive industry challenges or just. bad timing. The problem was just Blade.

itself. November 2023 came the Variety. article. In Variety, they reported that. Feige hired the Logan screenwriter. Michael Green to start fresh with. Mahershala Ali, who was not happy with. the earlier drafts, including one that. was led by women and Blade as like the. fourth lead. Denying that claim was the. former writer Michael Starbury, who. argued he'd worked on the draft right. before the strike and there was never a. version where Blade was led by women. 2023, you could argue, was also the last. straw overall. The Marvel struggled. horribly and swapped places to give time. to Quantumania that also didn't do that. well. Their VFX staff and outsourcing.

had become too much. They had too many. projects, not enough hands or resources, so everything started to look bad and. they had to cut corners, and honestly, we all saw it was looking bad. How does. one episode of She-Hulk cost more than. an episode of Game of Thrones? That. feels insane. Everything at the time. just fell on Victoria Alonso, who. departed in May, and let's not forget. that Jonathan Majors was arrested in. March. As the criticism grew, the. pressure on Marvel got hot, and a rumor. had it that Kevin Feige had started. reevaluating projects that weren't. coming together, with Blade rumored to. be one of them. The next month, Blade. appears in season 3's finale of What If?

Okay, cool. Not a lot of hope there. That same month, the signs become even. less hopeful. Mia Goth revealed the. further she got in Blade was a chemistry. test and a costume fitting. >> And they flew to Atlanta, and we did a a. chemistry test uh between Mahershala and. I, and we we did a costume fitting and a. wig fitting, and I was very excited. >> By March 2024, Aaron Pierre confirmed. his departure from the project. 3 months. later, Yann Demange, our second Blade. director, officially exits the film as. well, as they continue with script. rewrites and delays. Delroy Lindo exited.

later, describing the production as. having gone off the rails, and Marvel. veteran Eric Pearson joined on as. another writer. But who cares at this. point? Because another article releases. that same month about how hard it is to. work with Mahershala Ali. That following. month, Deadpool and Wolverine releases. with our original Blade joking about the. idea that there will never be another. Blade. At this point, it's been 5 years. since Blade was announced. We've all. lost hope. The next month, in August. 2025, Disney updated their calendar, reaffirming Blade's November 2025. release, which is crazy. We become a. little bit hopeful, only for it to be. removed 2 months later. And despite.

this, Feige and Mahershala continue to. give fans hope that the project was. still alive. Nearly another year passes. before Feige finally provided an update. in July of 2025, revealing that three or. four different versions of the film had. been developed, including two period. piece iterations, before the studio. ultimately settled on a contemporary. setting. And I guess that's an update. It's been a year. I was hoping for a. little bit something better, but I. guess. In September of that same year, Blade appeared in Marvel Zombies. So now. y'all just playing in our faces. Then, 10 months later, Feige admits defeat and.

announces they can't make the Blade. movie. Mahershala said that he had moved. on from the role saying for whatever. reason that project's not for me. If. Marvel wanted to do it, we would have. done it. He explained that after. development of Blade stalling, he was. able to move on to star in your mother. your mother your mother, which was. written and directed by Tariq. Feige. even back in 2025 acknowledged that they. kind of announced Blade before they. actually knew what the movie was. He. says, "We didn't want to simply just put. a leather outfit on him and have him. start killing vampires. It had to be. unique. It fell into the time started. pulling back and saying only accept.

insanely great. And it wasn't insanely. great at the time. We didn't feel like. as we often do, you can have a good. script and make a great script through. production. We didn't feel confident. that we could do that on Blade and we. didn't want to do that to Mahershala and. we didn't want to do that to us." So, when asked what the happened to. Blade, simply it was too much and going. nowhere. Every delay and rewrite, leadership and creative shakeup pointed. out a bigger problem. The movie couldn't. figure out what it was, therefore the. indecision making cost Disney money and. resources that just didn't measure up. If rumors are true, the filmmakers, actors, and studio couldn't agree, but. that along with Disney's big shifts left.

everyone at a stalemate. But, does that. mean we'll never get a Blade movie? Not. at all. In many ways this gives Marvel. the opportunity to regroup, figure out. the story they actually want to tell, and build a stronger foundation from the. jump. Behind the scenes, they could do. like what they did with Daredevil: Born. Again and just overhaul the entire. project and then bring it back with. different teams. Do I encourage it? Absolutely not. But, they're not. dangling this character like a carrot in. front of us anymore and I kind of. understand and I want that to stop. So, now we're moving on to what the. happened to Wonder Man. And as I. mentioned at the beginning of this. video, Wonder Man has officially been. canceled at Disney Plus. The show was.

renewed just 2 months after its release. and according to the showrunner Andrew. Guest, everyone loved making the series. and was eager to return for a season 2. Contracts had been signed and schedules. had been cleared and the writers room. was supposed to begin this month with. productions set to start early next. year. Andrew explained there was a. decision made internally between Disney. and Marvel that this didn't make sense. for them even though a few months ago it. did. Co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton. shared the same kind of confusion. saying, "I love that show to death. If. it were up to me, we would be making. that show." He even offers that if it. was solely up to Kevin Feige, Wonderman. would still be moving forward. And.

honestly, I believe both of them. Wonderman was well-loved, award-friendly, and didn't rely on. massive visual effects budgets. Creatively, the show worked, and this. wasn't a cancellation driven by quality. It was a cancellation driven by optics. and profit. To understand why, we have. to go back to 2020. Disney was suddenly. facing a global pandemic, theme parks. shut down, 100,000 employees were. furloughed, and theaters around the. world closed. In response, then CEO Bob. Chapek made streaming the company's top. priority. What brought them back was the. Disney Plus Investor Day that promised a. buttload of Marvel and Star Wars content. that definitely wasn't ready. According.

to the MCU, The Reign of Marvel Studios, both Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy. were pressured into announcing projects. that weren't ready. Some have been. delayed, overhauled, or just canceled. entirely. The goal was convincing. investors and subscribers that Disney. Plus would never run out of content. So, at that time, Disney in tandem with. Marvel wasn't asking, "Should we make. this?" It was asking, "How quickly can. we get this onto Disney Plus?" Then, in. 2022, Bob Chapek was fired and Bob Iger. returned. Almost immediately, the. strategy changed. Disney stopped chasing. endless content and started focusing on. profitability. Iger openly said that.

everything was on the table and that the. company needed to dramatically reduce. content spending. And that's where. Wonderman runs into trouble. The show. was greenlit during Disney's expansion. mode when subscriber growth was the. priority. But by the time season 1 was. gearing up, Disney had entered in an. entirely different kind of mode, one. more focused on recognizable IP and. characters, thus giving them a bigger, easier return of profit. At the same. time, Marvel Television was undergoing. its own kind of overhaul. For a while, Disney Plus shows like their movies with. no pilots, no traditional showrunners,

wild budgets, and the expectation that. maybe everything could be fixed in post. later. After so much creative struggle. and complaints about oversaturation, the. studio and Disney decided to completely. rethink how it made television. Unfortunately, Wonderman got caught in. the middle of that transition. And now, when you look at Disney Plus's upcoming. slate, the writing is kind of on the. wall. Vision Quest, Daredevil Born. Again, and Ahsoka are all. of bigger past projects that audiences. already know. They're familiar names. tied directly to the biggest Disney. brands. Wonderman wasn't canceled.

because people hated it. It was canceled. because it represented an older. strategy, one built around endless. content, and Disney doesn't believe in. that strategy anymore. Wonderman came at. the wrong time. It was too late for. Disney's streaming boom and too early. for whatever the hell Marvel Television. becomes next. And does this suck? 100%. and there's definitely more to unpack. here and a little bit more nuance to. like even what they develop from TVs and. changing it swiftly to movies. Like at. what they did to Mulan. But I only have. so much time here to talk about it. Unfortunately, this is just how the. industry works sometimes. Netflix has. done it. They used the pandemic as a.

cover for all kinds of cancellations and. restructuring. And we've seen shows like. The Minx get renewed by HBO only to have. the renewal pulled back during their. weird content mix-up. Wonderman isn't. the first series that this has happened. to and it definitely won't be the last, unfortunately. Of course, all this news. landed right after Ryan Coogler. announced that David Johnson would be. the new Black Panther. So, while we're. losing Blade and Wonderman, we're also. gaining something, right? There's a. reason these announcements happen when. they do. And whether you want to believe. it or not, this is part of Disney's. strategy for managing bad press. Disney. can't really bury news, not at the scale.

that they're operating on. Instead, they. dilute it. The internet can focus on two. things at once, but positive stories. almost always build momentum faster than. negative ones. Well, in this case it. does because while Blade and Wonderman. sparked criticism and reminded people. about Marvel's treatment of black-led. projects, social media feeds were also. flooded with the excitement over Black. Panther 3. Suddenly, anyone searching. for conversation about Marvel and black. talent isn't just seeing headlines about. the cancellations, they're also seeing. wall-to-wall coverage of David Johnson. joining one of Marvel's biggest. pictures. And if that's not enough, the. conversation itself shifts. Instead of.

asking why Blade fell apart or why. Wonderman was canceled, people can point. to Black Panther 3 as evidence that. Marvel's still investing in black-led. stories. Whether that's a fair argument. or not, I don't think it is, it still. changes the narrative. More importantly, it shifts your focus from what just died. to what's coming next. The same thing. applies to Ryan Gosling's announcement. We've seen this happen time and time. again. Attach a massive star or a. fan-favorite character to a project and. suddenly the internet moves on. The same. month, maybe even week, Disney cut a. bunch of people from Pixar, sparking. uproars. They announced Robert Downey. Jr. as Doctor Doom. Those search.

results, those trending topics, swiftly. became dominated by hype and excitement. for Doctor Doom and Robert Downey Jr. coming back. Before long, the. conversation is never going to be about. Blade or Wonder Man anymore. It's about. what's next for the MCU, and that's the. complete point to this video. Comment. down below with your thoughts because. there's a lot of reasons why these shows. were probably canceled and moved on, but. I do think it's not a lot of Marvel, it's a lot about Disney. A special. thanks to one of our N R Underground. subscribers, G Savvy 04. Thank you for. supporting us at the executive producer. level, and a big thanks to studio tech.

Brian Kim behind the camera, New. Rockstars editors Joshua Stephen Hurd. and Abby Friel, and all the other. supporting editors for their work on. this video. Follow me at Lulu_Clemens. and hit that subscribe [music] button. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you. guys later. >> [music]. [music].