Since Wonder Woman premiered in 2017 to great critical acclaim, Patty Jenkins’ name became synonymous with the character. Before Jenkins can me along, Wonder Woman had endured years in development as Warner Bros. searched for the proper director to successfully carry Diana Prince to movie theaters.
Back in 2015 when Jenkins took over Wonder Woman, another notable female director had walked away from the project as Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones) cited creative differences with the studio. However, even though Jenkins and Gal Gadot are now set to come back for a third installment, the director didn’t always see eye to eye with Warner’s higher-ups.
In a recent episode of the WTF podcast with Marc Maron, Jenkins explained that she too experienced serious creative differences when trying to implement her vision for Diana Prince. As it turns out, after directing Monster, Jenkins’ nailed the Wonder Woman gig even before MacLaren as far back as 2011, before deciding to walk away because she felt that though the studio wanted her as director it was without telling her own story and vision.
However, after Warner also failed to establish a working relationship with MacLaren, the studio asked Jenkins if she wanted to come back and finally do Wonder Woman as she saw fit. Jenkins, a self-confessed Wonder Woman fan, says that didn’t mean everything went smoothly as she still came across differences causing “an internal war on every level about what Wonder Woman should be.”
Thankfully in the end it seems like Jenkins got away with the kind of film she wanted to make, as 2017’s Wonder Woman still remains Warner’s most successful DC movie when accounting for both box office and public reception while also receiving widespread praise for how it portrayed a female superhero. Since then the studio has failed to replicate Wonder Woman’s charm with the likes of Aquaman and Shazam!, or even its sequel Wonder Woman 1984.
So far Wonder Woman 1984 has failed to match its predecessor with public opinion and has even underperformed at the box office, despite the ongoing pandemic and closed down theaters in several parts of the world, although it’ll likely remain a service seller for HBO Max for the time being.
Wonder Woman 1984 is currently available in theaters worldwide and on HBO Max.
Source: The A.V. Club