In providing an update which unfortunately seems to go against the studio’s previously declared mission of better curating their output, despite their recent wave of project cancellations, Marvel Studios exec Brad Winderbaum has confirmed that both the Ironheart and Wonder Man Disney Plus series are still very much on track for release.
The Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation offered this news regarding the studio’s television plans while speaking with pop culture news website Agents of Fandom in promotion of the the upcoming premiere of X-Men ’97.
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Asked by the outlet’s Editor-in-Chief TJ Zwarych whether or not both of the widely-unwanted-by-fans series would ever actually come out, particularly in light of the numerous scheduling and staffing shake-ups reported around their respective productions, Winderbaum (unfortunately) affirmed, “Yeah, absolutely.”
“We’re editing both of those shows as we speak,” he explained. “They’re spectacular, they’re amazing, and they’re different.”
“We’re able to explore corners of the universe that are really exciting,” the Marvel exec added. “Riri Williams is one of them and I cannot wait for people to meet Simon Williams.”
Notably, Winderbaum’s public confirmation that both series are still on track to release (though, as with most things these days, it’s recommended that fans wait to believe this promise until they see it) comes as a genuine surprise given the sheer amount of confusing and ever-dire reports surrounding each production.
In regards to Ironheart, after being announced in 2020 and publicly revealing in 2021 that the series would be written by TNT’s Snowpiercer staff writer Chinaka Hodge and feature production input from Black Panther duology director Ryan Coogler, Marvel Studios went essentially radio silent on the series’ production thereafter.
That was until September 2023, whenm as per a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spin-off was removed from the studio’s schedule all-together despite its filming having already been completed.
However, the series’ apparent death would be refuted just a few months later by series lead Dominque Thorne – albeit extremely weakly.
Asked about the series’ status during the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, the actress dispassionately declared, “Filming has concluded. Indeed. I can say strap in, get ready, it will be a ride, much like they all are. It is an epic journey and one I’m excited to share.”
As for the Yahya Abdul-Mateen II-led Wonder Man, reports have been even less optimistic regarding the Ionic Avenger’s solo series.
In October 2023, following the aforementioned declaration by both Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige that they needed to scale back their production plans for the shared cinematic universe, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios author and The Ringer contributor Joanna Robinson told the outlet’s The Watch podcast, “After we heard about Daredevil [being sent back to the drawing board], I’ve also heard – again The Watch scoop, but also don’t sort me, dubious sources necessarily – that they are trashing the Wonder Man project. There’s a lot of stuff that is going to go in the can.”
The next month, Robinson’s scoop would be countered by Deadline‘s Anthony D’Alessandro, who in a November 15th exclusive for the site revealed that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton had stepped away from his previously announced role as the director of the formerly-named-Avengers: The Kang Dynasty in order to focus on his other studio projects, namely Wonder Man and Shang-Chi 2.
Further, at the time it was said that the series was set to resume production following the resolution of the 2023 Hollywood guild strikes sometime after Thanksgiving.
However, in throwing a further layer of confusion over the series, just two days after D’Alessandro published his scoop, noted film critic John Rocha alleged that, per “a source I know, the idea that he’s going to be working on the Wonder Man series is cover. ‘Cause from what I’m being told is that the actors were told to move on from the Wonder Man series and if they are going to do it they were going to be starting from scratch.”
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“So, one of two things is going on,” he then speculated. “The Wonder Man series is dead and this is a Justin Simeon/Donald Glover situation where they’re saying he wants to focus on Wonder Man and Shang-Chi 2, and then like a month later they’re going to say Wonder Man is cancelled, they couldn’t figure it out or whatever, and this is providing cover for Destin Daniel Cretton. Or they are starting from scratch. They let some of the actors go, but they might be bringing some of them back to restart this machine all over again.”
Ultimately, as of writing and as noted above, whether or not either of these series ever actually see the light of day remains to be seen.
