Is the future of Wonder Woman also written in cinema? And with Gal Gadot in the main role, for what would be his third solo adventure? While TF1 broadcasts the first and the greatest vagueness reigns at DC, we take stock.
In their remote fight against the supremacy of Marvel Studios, Warner and DC will have managed to score points by being the first to release a film carried by a superheroine. And not just any: Wonder Woman, icon of the editor, in the same way as Batman and Superman, who had already had the honors of the cinema on several occasions, and known different interpreters.
After a few aborted projects, such as the feature film that Joss Whedon was preparing or the Justice League Mortal by George Miller, where she was to be played by Megan Gale, History will therefore remember Gal Gadot as the very first actress to have lent her features to the famous Amazon. First in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman. Then in his solo adventure, which TF1 broadcasts this Sunday, January 29.
Directed by Patty Jenkins, landed from Thor 2 a few years earlier to the chagrin of Natalie Portman, Wonder Woman hits theaters worldwide in June 2017. Well received by critics and audiences, it earned nearly $823 million worldwide. . A success that convinced Warner to launch a sequel. And Kevin Feige that the MCU can move forward on future Captain Marvel and Black Widow.
Filming started on May 28, 2018, almost a year to the day after the release of the first opus. And this sequel takes place in the 80s, as its title indicates: Wonder Woman 1984. The release is scheduled for June 2020, and the superheroine whose face there is the feline Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) and the trickster Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal with a look close to that of Donald Trump while the film should be in theaters shortly before the American presidential elections).
But another adversary, more unexpected, stands in its way: the Covid. This virus that knocks down all blockbusters and the world of cinema as a whole. The feature film then goes through various postponements, according to successive waves, and the ax falls in December 2020, when Warner decides that all its next films will be released, simultaneously, in American theaters and on the HBO Max platform. And that Wonder Woman 1984 will get the ball rolling on Christmas Day.
Also deprived of French cinemas, in which it was to pass on December 16, 2020 before the extension of their closure decides otherwise, it will be released with us directly on video when it is already considered a failure. Not helped by the health situation and generally bad word-of-mouth, it only garnered 170 million greenbacks. In the world.
Not even the amount of its budget, which was 200. This does not prevent Warner from wanting to achieve the treble with the director and the actress, and a Wonder Woman 3 is formalized on December 28, 2020, a few days after its release American. Because the six million subscribers who saw the film on HBO Max satisfied the studio? Or to be forgiven for using it as a test of his hybrid method?
Warner Bros. Pictures Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot
Although official, Wonder Woman 3 does not give any sign of life for a long time, because Patty Jenkins must first direct the Star Wars Rogue Squadron film also announced at the end of 2020… and which still has not taken off. After the postponement of the start of shooting, disputes over the script would have led to a stand-by of the project, which would not be abandoned according to the main interested party, who claims to still be working on it.
A delay that could have benefited Wonder Woman. But no. Because Warner is experiencing many turmoil in 2022. The merger with Discovery first propels David Zaslav to its head, and the latter decides to review the DC strategy of his predecessor, which the TV movie Batgirl will pay the price, being canceled when it was already shot.
And while Henry Cavill’s cameo at the end of Black Adam portends a return of the actors launched by Zack Snyder, James Gunn and Peter Safran take over the helm of DC Studios, with the aim of setting up a shared universe capable of to last at least ten years. Torn between change in continuity and a desire to wipe the slate clean, the two men seem to opt for the second solution.
And so, a few days before Henry Cavill returned his Superman cape, Wonder Woman 3 was shelved. Rumors claim that Patty Jenkins has left the project, refusing to correct her script, but the director steps up to clarify that her departure is linked to the new vision being developed by DC Studios, and in which it does not there’s no room for Gal Gadot and her.
The actress also formalizes the end of her adventure in the Amazon and, to date, the cinematographic fate of the heroine is unclear. James Gunn having claimed that she counted a lot in their strategy, we should see her again in the cinema in the years to come. But with another face and another approach, of which we could have some data shortly.