The infamous WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes not only brought Hollywood to a temporary standstill in 2023, but they also almost led to the abandonment of a recently released Marvel show. In a recent discussion, Andrew Guest, who serves as the showrunner of the Wonder Man series, revealed that the offbeat project was nearly canceled as a tax write-off due to the writers’ strikes.
Andrew Guest says Wonder Man came close to getting canceled
During his recent appearance at The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Live event series at the DGA Theatre Complex, the veteran TV writer admitted that the Wonder Man series could have been a tax write-off at one point. This was even after they had filmed around half the show.
Talking about the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Andrew Guest relayed to Laughing Place that “we were halfway through ours” when they thought of pulling the plug on the Marvel series. He continued, “You know, it could have been a tax write-off for Disney, but I know for a fact that the people who were producing this show, like Brian and all of our amazing team there, were fighting their asses off to make sure that we came back and finished this weird, melancholy show. That, you know, was a big, big swing for them.”
As such, Wonder Man could have shared the same fate as the shelved DCEU Batgirl movie. The latter got canceled as a tax write-off, despite having entered the post-production stage. However, the Marvel show ultimately managed to escape this fate, having recently premiered its first season on Disney+.
Notably, the decision not to cancel Wonder Man seems to have paid off for Marvel, as the series has garnered impressive reviews from critics. It currently boasts a score of 90% on both the Tomatometer and Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, despite the overwhelmingly positive response to Wonder Man, Marvel Studios has yet to officially renew the show for Season 2.
