Shang-Chi 2 could happen sooner than many fans expect thanks to the latest update out of Marvel. The sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings entered development in 2021, with director Destin Daniel Cretton attached to write and direct, and star Simu Liu expected to return. Five years on, Marvel Studios still hasn’t made the follow-up official, and the biggest obstacle all along has been its director’s packed calendar.
That obstacle just got much smaller. Variety revealed on Thursday, July 30, that Marvel had canceled Wonder Man, scrapping the Season 2 renewal it handed the Disney+ series back in March. Cretton co-created the series and signed on to direct and executive produce its second season, his last announced Marvel assignment after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which arrives in theaters on July 31. Removing it from his schedule gives the Shang-Chi sequel a much clearer runway.
A writers’ room for Season 2 reportedly never opened in the four months since the renewal, and the show’s writers have been given the leeway to move on to other projects. Walking back a renewal is far from unprecedented these days, but the timing here makes it sting. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series earlier this month for his work as Simon Williams. Season 1, which debuted on January 27 with all eight episodes, was very well received and holds a 91% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Season 2 of Wonder Man would have taken a good chunk of Cretton's time. The director created Wonder Man with showrunner Andrew Guest and directed its first two episodes. A second season would have pulled him back into television production for months. Those months can now be dedicated to whatever he chooses next, which means Shang-Chi 2 can finally get more attention.
Cretton confirmed in a recent interview that Shang-Chi 2 is "in active development right now." While promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, he also revealed to Indiewire that Dave Callaham, who co-wrote the first film, rejoined him on the sequel, saying they have been "jumping into it recently:"
"Yeah, Dave Callaham and I have been developing it. We’ve been jumping into it recently. So, I really hope it is going to happen."
Asked whether he still intends to direct the sequel himself, Cretton joked that he has "all the time in the world." As of this week, that answer looks a lot less like a joke.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrived in September 2021 to strong reviews and earned more than $430 million worldwide while the pandemic kept many international theaters closed. Marvel initially rewarded Cretton with the director’s chair on Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but he stepped away as the studio reworked its Multiverse Saga plans, and Joe and Anthony Russo took over what became Avengers: Doomsday.
Simu Liu, who has been very vocal about wanting a second solo film, hasn’t appeared in live action since the first movie. He did voice the character in the animated Disney+ shows What If...? and Marvel Zombies, though, and he's finally set to make his next live-action appearance in Avengers: Doomsday.
Even with a lighter workload, no one should expect Shang-Chi 2 on a marquee next summer. Marvel confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con that no new MCU movies will arrive between Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027, and the studio already claimed 2028 for Black Panther 3 and Ghost Rider. Cretton is also casting a live-action Naruto movie at Lionsgate. A lighter load will still help Shang-Chi 2 move forward faster, though.
Why Did Marvel Cancel Wonder Man Season 2?
Marvel gave no official reason for the cancellation of Wonder Man Season 2, but the streaming numbers offer the most likely answer. Wonder Man appeared on Nielsen’s weekly chart for streaming originals just once, coming in eighth during its premiere week with 618 million minutes viewed, and fell out of the top 10 entirely after that. Strong reviews and awards attention clearly weren’t enough to make up for an audience that small, especially for a show as expensive to produce as a Marvel series.
The four months of silence that followed the renewal point to another explanation. If Marvel had a second season it truly believed in, script work would likely have started shortly after the announcement, and the fact that it never did suggests the studio struggled to find a story worth telling. Wonder Man’s first season drew so much praise because of its unusual premise, a satire of Hollywood wrapped inside a superhero show, and a follow-up would have needed a fresh spin on that idea to justify eight more episodes. It may be that Marvel weighed its options and decided leaving the acclaimed first season alone was the better outcome for the show’s legacy.
The cancellation also fits the current state of Marvel television. Disney significantly scaled back its output after flooding Disney+ with MCU shows in the platform’s early years, and among the studio’s live-action series, only Loki and Daredevil: Born Again have made it to a second season. In that sense, Wonder Man simply joined a long list of one-season MCU shows, though the way it happened could leave fans more hesitant to trust future renewal announcements until cameras are actually rolling.
There is at least a silver lining for those hoping to see more of Simon Williams. The characters from the series can reportedly still appear in future Marvel projects, and given the reception to Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s performance, the studio would be wise to find a spot for him somewhere down the line.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
