Chris Pine Shocked At Canceled Sequel

“I’m stunned that they said no to a billion-dollar franchise and decided to pivot elsewhere,” Chris Pine said. “I don’t know what the reasoning was behind that. It’s above my pay grade, but Wonder Woman is an incredible character, Patty [Jenkins] is such a thoughtful director.” Despite Chris Pine’s faith, Wonder Woman 1984 received far less approval than the original movie. Perhaps so much so, that Patty Jenkins’ treatment for a third Wonder Woman movie was actually rejected by Warner Bros.

Chris Pine played Steve Trevor in the original Wonder Woman, and despite dying at the end, he returned for the sequel via a magic spell that allowed him to take over another man’s body.

Pine made clear that his disappointment about a lack of a trilogy was not due to hoping to reprise the character again, as he considered Steve Trevor to be gone for good by the end of Wonder Woman 1984. Pine simply thought so highly of the Wonder Woman character and director Patty Jenkins that he felt sure there would be more.

This was also right around the time that news released that the DCU was being rebooted with James Gunn at the helm. It is unclear if Gunn was amenable to Jenkins’ take on Wonder Woman remaining a part of the new DC movies or not.

Gunn did very openly state that Henry Cavill’s Superman would not be part of the new DCU despite Cavill wanting to continue in the role. It is actually especially notable that Chris Pine is advocating for why there should have been more Wonder Woman movies, as he was initially reluctant to take on the role of Steve Trevor.

He recounted how Patty Jenkins actually had to persuade him. “I had no interest in playing the boyfriend, and it sounded like second fiddle,” he said. “Then, in talking to Patty, the way she described it was, ‘Forget the superhero of it all, this is a romance, this is Casablanca, that’s the movie I want to make.’ I was like, oh, now that is very cool because when have you seen a superhero film that was a love story, ultimately?”

It should be noted that Wonder Woman 1984 did face challenges that the original did not have to endure. Namely, the sequel was released at the height of the pandemic when much of life was still restricted.

This led to the movie not receiving a proper box office release, resulting in just $169 million from theaters compared to the original’s $824 million. It would be interesting to see if Chris Pine’s praise for the franchise would have manifested in audiences as well, had the sequel had a proper release.

As for the future of Wonder Woman, nothing has been said about the character factoring into any immediate plans for James Gunn’s version of the DCU. So far, only characters like Superman, Batman, and Supergirl have been announced as having stories being built around them.

Chris Pine already knew that he was done with the franchise, but it seems a safe assumption Gal Gadot is also done and will be replaced if DC decides to do anything further with Wonder Woman. With Wonder Woman being one of the few positively received characters of the original DCU, it will be interesting to see how she is handled under the new regime.

Source: Business Insider