She’s a Wonder. Forget the invisible-jet-flying Wonder Woman from the delightfully cheesy SuperFriends cartoon. Fans met an entirely new heroine in the 2017 blockbuster feature simply called Wonder Woman.
We now know the sequel’s title: It’s Wonder Woman 1984, and it’s set in that neon-splashed decade. Two photos released in early June show Diana marveling at some very 1980s TV screens (J.R. Ewing!) and in a possible spoiler, Steve Trevor getting his shopping mall on. (Is this really Steve? How can that be… never mind, it’s the movies.)
You can’t stop Wonder Woman. She’s coming back for a sequel.
Warner Bros.
With Gal Gadot as the lead in Wonder Woman, the heroic Amazon finally landed a full-on film of her own, and some critics call it the best feature ever in the DC film universe. (Batman v Superman will have to console itself with its shelf full of Razzies.) The film was the third-highest-grossing movie of 2017, behind only Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
In mid-June 2018, Gadot released the first photo showing her in costume for the sequel. She’s apparently landed herself a very 1980s curling iron, and the costume is looking shiny.
And in late June, director Patty Jenkins released a photo of Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva, aka supervillain Cheetah, though Wiig is shown standing in a museum in a very-1980s outfit, not in full villain garb. (Minerva is an archaeologist in the comics, so the museum location makes sense.)
Wonder Woman proved, once and for all, that female superheroes can headline their own movie, if it’s done well. Seems ridiculous this was ever a question, but as Deadline wrote, “there seemed (to be) a reason studios put capes mostly on men, because it was thought they were the rabid fan base that camped out early and came back often and made huge opening weekends.”
Welcome to the 21st century, filmmakers, where men and women can be equally devoted fans of both male and female heroes.
A sequel was inevitable, because DC execs are no dummies. Fans worried at first about whether director Patty Jenkins would return for the second film, but she signed on in September 2017. Variety reports Jenkins will earn around $8 million to direct, produce and work on the script, which would make her the highest-paid female director of all time.
Release date, production info
The Wonder Woman sequel is scheduled for a Nov. 1, 2019 release, moved up from December 2019 to avoid competing with Star Wars: Episode IX. According to The Washington Post, filming will begin this month.
The title’s been confirmed by director Patty Jenkins as Wonder Woman 1984, so get out your jelly shoes and Members Only jackets for the trip to the theater.
Jenkins is working on the script, but she’s not alone. She’s writing along with Geoff Johns, president and chief creative officer of DC Comics, and screenwriter Dave Callaham.
Cast: Who’s who?
Returning characters
New faces
Plot news, rumors and theories
Don’t be a Cheetah! Director Patty Jenkins confirmed on Twitter in March that Kristen Wiig will star as the supervillain Cheetah, calling Wiig “sensationally talented.” Cheetah has long been a nemesis of Wonder Woman, with four different incarnations since her 1943 debut. (In 2001, a man briefly took on the title of Cheetah, but the other three have been women.) Early Cheetahs were just women in costumes, but more recent versions morph into a human-cheetah hybrid and have enhanced strength and agility, plus deadly claws and fangs. Thanks to a photo Jenkins released in late June 2018, Wiig’s version of Cheetah appears to be archaeologist Dr. Barbara Minerva, but there’s also no need for the film to stick closely to any comics story.
Totally awesome ’80s: We know from the title that the movie will be set in that totally tubular decade of the 1980s. Gnarly! But also, serious! Screenrant says the new movie “will send Diana against the forces of Soviet Union in the closing days of the Cold War.” To be specific, the film will be set in 1984, the year of the Los Angeles Olympics.
Pining for Pine: Many fans wondered if Chris Pine, who played Steve Trevor in the first film, would be back. Spoiler ahead: He sacrificed himself in the first film, so it would seem… difficult. But anything goes in comic resurrections (just ask thawed-out Captain America over at Marvel). And now that Jenkins has released a photo labeling it Trevor, we’re left to wonder exactly how he makes his return.
Watch this: Top 5 ways ‘Wonder Woman’ saved the DC movie universe
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Seventies superstar: Until Gadot came along, the iconic on-screen Wonder Woman was Lynda Carter, who starred in the 1970s television series. Could Carter make a cameo appearance in the sequel? In early 2018, Jenkins was asked about that. “We’ll see,” she told Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart. “Lynda is one of the dearest people to us, has been a great mentor and dear friend. And we actually desperately tried to get her in the first one and we had the scheduling that couldn’t work, so she’s always been a part of our Wonder Woman family. We won’t say anything yet, but we certainly — there’s no lack of trying.”
She’s coming to America: The first film was set in wartime Europe, but for this one, the star-spangled superhero is coming to the good ol’ USA. “The story will take place in the US, which I think is right,” Jenkins told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s Wonder Woman. She’s got to come to America. It’s time.”
Reunited, and it feels so good: Pedro Pascal, star of Netflix show Narcos, has been cast in an as-yet unrevealed role. Director Jenkins and Pascal worked together on the 2015 TV movie Exposed. Game of Thrones fans will know Pascal for his role as dashing but doomed Oberyn Martell.
Cheetah, but no copycat: Jenkins told Entertainment Tonight the two films won’t march in lockstep. “We’re actually making a totally different film with a lot of the same … things that we love, but (the sequel is) its own movie completely,” she said.
Rumored Riz? There’s also a rumor that Riz Ahmed, star of HBO’s The Night Of, is being pursued for a role, based on a statement made by The Tracking Board’s editor-in-chief Jeff Sneider during a March podcast. Ahmed is also in this year’s Venom, which may mean he’s too busy to pick up another major superhero movie.
This piece was originally posted May 9, 2018, and is updated as new details come out.
