In July, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was on a set, hanging out at craft services, snacking on some cranberry applesauce, when he got a text message from his publicist: “Congratulations on your second Emmy nomination.”
Abdul-Mateen was shocked. Though his show Wonder Man was well reviewed, it wasn’t exactly considered an Emmy frontrunner. And so Abdul-Mateen hadn’t even been aware that nominations were happening that day. “It wasn’t on my radar,” he tells Little Gold Men. “I wasn’t checking in the same way that I was the first time, and that has really allowed me to have a beautiful experience with this whole thing, because I experienced it as a gift.”
On the Disney+ Marvel show, Abdul-Mateen played Simon Williams, an aspiring actor who desperately wants to star in a remake of the film Wonder Man. He also happens to have superpowers, which he has to keep under wraps if he wants to work as an actor.
The part meant a lot to Abdul-Mateen. “I did that job for all of the right reasons, the reasons in my heart, and I had a great time doing that job,” the actor says. “I’m just glad to still have an occasion to talk about the show and to represent the show.”
Just a couple weeks after the Emmy nominations were announced, Abdul-Mateen was hit with another surprise—and this time it was a disappointing one. Disney, which had previously greenlit a second season of Wonder Man, had reversed course and canceled the show. Fans were disappointed and confused by the news, but Abdul -Mateen has been taking it in stride. “I understand that that’s the nature of this business —there’s highs and lows,” he says. “As my favorite playwright, August Wilson, says in one of his plays: ‘You got to take the crookeds with the straights.’ That’s the way that it goes, and so business and life move on.”
Abdul-Mateen delivered a charming, funny, and towering performance on the show, which arrived during one of his busiest years to date. He also starred in the Netflix series Man on Fire, which came out in April, and will soon be seen with Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth, the sequel to Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
Abdul-Mateen, who previously won an Emmy for his role on HBO’s Watchmen and was Tony-nominated for Topdog/Underdog, talks to Vanity Fair about his show’s sudden cancellation, his newest hobby, and being kinder to himself.