While we wait for Wonder Woman's second solo
DCEU adventure to arrive in theaters, here's
a detailed rundown of everything we know about
this '80s-set sequel — and a look at all
the rumors that have surfaced surrounding
the project.
Here's your warning now: potential spoilers
for Wonder Woman 1984 ahead.
With Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins became the
highest-grossing female director of a live-action
movie, so it should come as no surprise that
she'll be the sequel's director.
Meanwhile, veteran comic book and television
writer Geoff Johns confirmed he was working
on a script.
Expendables co-writer Dave Callaham was later
reported to have been recruited to work on
the script with Johns and Jenkins.
In January 2018, Jenkins spoke to Entertainment
Tonight Canada about why she didn't necessarily
see Wonder Woman 1984 as a sequel:
"We're actually making a totally different
film… it's its own movie completely, it's
not [Wonder Woman] 'two' to us.
It's an entirely new adventure together."
So what are the details of that new adventure?
The title gives some of it away: the story
will take place in 1984.
We'll have to wait to see how Diana's experiences
in the New World inform her in important decisions
— like where she falls in the David Lee
Roth vs. Sammy Hagar debate, or if she thought
David Lynch's Dune adaptation had enough guitar
solos.
Jenkins also told Entertainment Weekly in
June 2017:
"The story will take place in the U.S., which
I think is right.
She's Wonder Woman.
She's got to come to America.
It's time."
As for just when the follow-up will hit, the
release date for Wonder Woman 1984 has moved
around a bit.
Currently, it's scheduled for June 5, 2020.
We got our first look at Gal Gadot on the
set of Wonder Woman 1984 and in costume in
June 2018.
With the caption "She's back…"
Gadot posted a shot of herself dressed as
Wonder Woman to her Instagram account.
Wonder Woman's garb in that shot doesn't seem
to have changed much from her first film.
It seems a bit shinier than it did in Wonder
Woman, but that's about it — and that could
be the effect of lighting rather than the
clothing itself.
But that wasn't quite the case by early June
2019, when director Patty Jenkins revealed
a dynamic poster featuring Gal Gadot as Wonder
Woman in a stunning new gold costume set against
a colorful kaleidoscope background.
It's only speculation but considering the
more regal feel of the outfit, one possibility
is that it points to a possible return to
Themyscira.
Diana is, after all, literally a princess
and might be expected to look the part if
and when she goes back home.
In December 2017, Jenkins took to Twitter
to counter what she called "false assumptions"
about the romantic aspects of the upcoming
Wonder Woman 1984.
Pointing to a Collider article headlined "Wonder
Woman 2 will have a new love story," Jenkins
tweeted:
"Quite a few people, including this headline,
seem to be completely misunderstanding or
making some pretty false assumptions based
on one of many vague quotes I made about something
I can't say anything about."
The "false assumptions" Jenkins referred to
were rumors flying that — in light of Steve
Trevor's death at the end of Wonder Woman,
the hero would have a completely new love
interest.
The quote from the Collider piece that sparked
all the speculation was from a broad description
of the film.
Among other things, Jenkins said Wonder Woman
1984 would have:
"[...] a great love story again and a couple
new unbelievable characters who I'm so excited
about, who are very different than… in the
last movie."
Considering the quote, it's difficult to blame
people for speculating.
But as fans would eventually learn, it was
a little too soon to count Steve Trevor out
of the dating pool.
Though the dashing pilot went boom at the
end of 2017's Wonder Woman, rumors swirled
he'd his return in Wonder Woman 1984.
In June 2018, Patty Jenkins confirmed it,
tweeting "Welcome to WONDER WOMAN 1984, Steve
Trevor!" along with a production photo of
Chris Pine as Trevor in '80s-era clothes.
As a transplant from nearly a hundred years
ago, Tevor's time shift will likely be even
more jarring than it was for that other veteran
named Steve who woke up decades after serving
in a World War.
Trevor will likely be very confused once he
sees some of the more extreme '80s fashions,
and equally bewildered the first time he hears
Devo.
In late July 2018, The Hollywood Reporter
broke the news that Natasha Rothwell was joining
the cast of Wonder Woman 1984.
Known best for her work as Kelli on HBO's
Insecure, Rothwell has joined the Wonder Woman
1984 production, but nothing has been revealed
about her character.
Rothwell responded to the report by tweeting
simply "I have no words."
Meanwhile, Rothwell fans responded to that
by flooding her with congratulations and support.
One possibility that seems likely is that
Rothwell will play an '80s answer to the first
film's sidekick role of Etta Candy who was
played by Lucy Davis.
After all, Rothwell's work in show business
has mostly been in the realm of comedy, so
it seems pretty likely that she'll provide
some comic relief in this film as well.
Interestingly, when the DC comic book universe
went through yet another reboot a few years
ago, a new version of Etta Candy began appearing
in the comics, and she definitely bears a
resemblance to Rothwell.
Time will tell if or how this particular connection
could pan out, or if Rothwell is playing someone
else entirely.
In February 2018, That Hashtag Show reported
that the Cheetah — a supervillain known
for locking horns with Wonder Woman in the
comics — would be Diana's antagonist in
Wonder Woman 1984.
Only a few days later, Deadline reported the
surprising news that Saturday Night Live alum
Kristen Wiig was the top pick to play Wonder
Woman's feline nemesis, a report that was
confirmed the next month with a tweet from
Patty Jenkins, along with what could be a
still of Wiig as the cat-lady from the production.
If nothing else, it probably rules out Wiig
appearing as this cat lady:
"A cat is an angel that poops in a box."
Though she's known mainly for her work in
comedy, Wiig has clearly been making strides
to show her dramatic range in movies like
2017's Mother!, 2015's The Martian, and 2014's
Welcome to Me.
Wiig will be playing Barbara Ann Minerva — an
ambitious, ethically questionable archaeologist.
She gains her powers and new half-human half-feline
form when she interrupts a ritual to an ancient
African god.
While Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman's oldest
villains, some are speculating she won't be
the only bad guy in Wonder Woman 1984.
At the end of March 2018, The Hollywood Reporter
revealed actor Pedro Pascal — perhaps best
known in his role of Oberyn Martell in HBO's
Game of Thrones – had been cast in an undisclosed
role for Wonder Woman 1984.
In July 2018 Patty Jenkins tweeted a photo
of Pascal in character.
Jenkins had nothing to say about exactly who
Pascal was playing in the photo, but the most
popular theory so far is that he's playing
Maxwell Lord — an enigmatic businessman
who was first introduced to comics when he
helped fund a new '80s iteration of the Justice
League.
Years later he would be revealed to be much
more villainous: During the lead-up to DC
Comics' 2005-2006 line-wide event Infinite
Crisis, Lord kills the Blue Beetle, one of
the heroes who was on Lord's '80s Justice
League team.
Wonder Woman is branded an outlaw in the Infinite
Crisis prologue series "The OMAC Project"
when she kills Lord on live television by
snapping his neck.
In January 2019, We Got This Covered cited
sources who delivered Wonder Woman 1984 story
details that would solve the mysteries of
Pedro Pascal's casting as well as how Steve
Trevor could've been resurrected.
According to the report, Pascal is indeed
playing DC Comics' Maxwell Lord.
He's searching for artifacts to grant him
godlike power, and in this endeavor he enlists
the aid of archaeologist Barbara Ann Minerva.
It's during the search for these artifacts
that Minerva is transformed into the Cheetah,
and she blames Lord for the curse.
Not yet having the power to protect himself
from someone as strong as the Cheetah, Lord
asks Wonder Woman for help.
Using one of the artifacts he presumably finds
before Minerva's transformation, Lord resurrects
Steve Trevor in return for the Amazon's protection.
Obviously none of these details have been
confirmed, but it could explain not only why
Trevor is back but why he apparently hasn't
aged.
Footage of an action scene from Wonder Woman
1984 was shown in July 2018 at the San Diego
Comic-Con Warner Bros. film slate panel.
The footage wasn't released online, but according
to reports, the footage was well-received
in spite of being a rough cut.
Viewers reported the scene begins with Wonder
Woman crashing into a shopping mall to stop
two armed men.
In the middle of the action a little girl
puts herself in danger when she walks up to
the superhero and exclaims "Oh my gosh!"
Once Wonder Woman gets the little girl to
safety she takes out the gunmen, leaps to
the mall's ground floor, and runs out of the
mall and on into the city.
One writer at Birth.Movies.Death. noted happily
how, compared to 2017's Wonder Woman, this
scene was, quote, "decidedly brighter, faster
and — brace yourself — sillier."
While appearing on Deadline's "Crew Call"
podcast, Patty Jenkins spoke to the question
of why she chose 1984 America as the time
and setting for the sequel to Wonder Woman.
Jenkins didn't get too deep into it, but she
said more about it than she has previously:
"I picked 1984 for a very specific reason.
I think it was the pinnacle of the success
in the '80s in my opinion, because it's before
the market started to get a little more struggling
as the '80s went on, and it was like the top
of the top, y'know?
It was such an incredible time.
And I feel like there's something about the
excess of exactly that period of time, which
is so linked up to where we are right now
in the world."
While there's no way to know for sure what
Jenkins means until the movie is released
— or alternatively until she opens up more
about it — she seems to be pointing to social
and/or political themes and subtexts.
She's set the film specifically at what she
calls the "pinnacle of success" right before
things got shakier.
It's only speculation, but maybe she wants
to warn us that we're getting ready for a
similar decline...
While we still don't know for certain exactly
how Steve Trevor will be returning to the
land of the living in Wonder Woman 1984, Chris
Pine spoke with Wonder Woman co-star Robin
Wright in early June 2019 about the upcoming
film as part of Variety's Actors on Actors
series.
Pine didn't get too specific, but what he
said hinted at the notion that his role in
Wonder Woman 1984 won't bring him into the
action quite so much:
"The tables had turned on me as a man in terms
of how I interacted and played on screen,
whereby I loved my lady."
Pine also told Wright that the tables turning
in this way didn't represent an easy transition.
He talked about trying to get Patty Jenkins
to let him in more action scenes, and joked
about how the mantra of the production for
him became, "Not about you."
"My ego comes out, and, like, 'I want the
big f---in' fight!
Let me climb something!'
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