MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

Trolls come out in force after Marvel announces Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as 'Wonder Man'

Trolls on social media came out in full force and criticized Marvel for introducing Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as 'Wonder Man'

Emmy-winning actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to make his Marvel debut with the upcoming Disney+ series ‘Wonder Man’ in which he would be seen playing the lead role of Simon Williams, who is considered to be one of the most interesting characters in Marvel Comics.

The actor is not new to the superhero genre and has acted in a couple of superhero projects in the past. In 2018, he joined the DC Extended Universe when he was cast as supervillain Black Manta in ‘Aquaman’. Meanwhile, in 2019, he played the character of Cal Abar, aka Doctor Manhattan, in the HBO series ‘Watchmen’ and won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

RELATED ARTICLES

Marvel postpones release dates of 3 major movies, fans say stop announcing films 'years' in advance

'It needs to stop': Marvel Studios SLAMMED after insider reveals VFX team is 'underpaid and understaffed

This will be the first time that the ‘Ambulance’ star will be making an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and we know how everything is interconnected in the Marvel universe, so it won’t be a surprise if Mateen II becomes a frequent collaborator with the aforementioned production house. As far as the character is concerned, ‘Wonder Man’ was created by Stan Lee, along with artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, and was introduced in 1964 via ‘The Avengers #9’. Williams starts his journey as an antagonist and works for Baron Zemo and the Enchantress to take down the superhero team.

However, everything changes when he’s reborn as a superhero and switches sides.
As soon as the news of Mateen II’s casting surfaced online, trolls began to question the choice of casting and asked the makers why couldn’t they make the character an Asian or someone else. One of the fans said, “If they gotta race bend, why always Black…? (The second most represented race) This could have been a great Asian character, one that did not have to have a martial arts background like Shang Chi.” Another social media user noted, “It's funny, they have 4 black-led shows coming out in Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars(did that become a movie?) and the Wakanda show, and they still think that's not good enough so they need to keep race swapping white characters. It's comical at this point.”

“Can we stop whitewashing/blackwashing/changing any race of Marvel characters? If we could get remotely comic-accurate content, that would be great,” wrote another user. Another social media user wrote, “Why can’t y’all just bring actual black superheroes to the screen?”

Meanwhile, one of the users stated that they wanted Nathan Fillion in the role and not Yahya. The user wrote, “Nathan Fillion or I don't want it.”

Apart from Yahya, Marvel will be bringing back the Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, a character that was first seen in the movie ‘Iron Man 3’ and later went on to make an appearance in ‘Shang-Chi’. However, if you are a DC fan and thinking about what this means for ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’, don’t worry because he is still going to feature as Black Manta in the sequel.

‘Shang-Chi’ helmer Destin Daniel Cretton will be directing the series while ‘Hawkeye’ co-producer Andrew Guest will serve as head writer.

As of now, no release date has been announced for the ‘Wonder Man’ series.