Marvel show axing has Destin Daniel Cretton baffled after $1B Spider-Man success
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shattering records while Wonder Man gets the ax—prompting Destin Daniel Cretton to question that move.
As Spider- Man: Brand New Day races past milestones, director Destin Daniel Cretton is grappling with a very different headline: Disney+ canceled his Marvel series Wonder Man after renewing it for Season 2. In a new conversation with TheWrap, Cretton said the call didn’t come from a lack of faith inside Marvel — and he’s still trying to make sense of it.
“I don’t fully understand the business of streaming, but if the business was right, we would be making that show because I know [Feige] loves that show as much as I do. It’s a bummer. I’m heartbroken about it. But I need to fully understand the why.”
Cretton added that judging a streaming show’s performance is murky because Disney+ doesn’t share viewership. One data point did surface: Nielsen tallied 618 million minutes watched in the U.S. during Wonder Man’s first week, eighth among streaming originals for that period, per figures reported by Deadline. As for shifting the story to a movie, Cretton called it an open question rather than any kind of plan.
Inside the reversal
Andrew Guest, the show’s showrunner, pushed back on speculation that the cancellation was a marketing ploy or a stealth pivot to a feature. He said the team wanted to keep going, contracts were signed, and work was underway when Disney and Marvel decided the series no longer made sense for them.
“There is no movie in the works,” Guest stated.
Record box office
Meanwhile, Cretton’s web-slinger sequel with Tom Holland and Zendaya is rewriting the record book for Sony and Marvel. The film ’s domestic and global pace has been staggering:
- $508.8 million estimated in North America after seven days — the fastest ever to $500 million domestically, topping Avengers: Endgame ’s eight-day mark.
- About $360 million opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, edging past Endgame’s $357 million to claim the biggest domestic debut on record.
- Already over $1 billion worldwide, the fastest climb to that benchmark to date, and the 23rd film to clear $500 million in North America.
For Cretton, it’s a whiplash moment: career-high box office on the big screen alongside a streaming project he says he and Kevin Feige loved — and that he still hopes to understand.