Wonder Woman 3 Just Benefited From Another Movie’s Delay
It looks like the third Wonder Woman movie has another movie's delay to thank!
This article is more than 2 years old
The call of Themyscira is more powerful than any Force in the galaxy, a recent Screen Rant Original claims. Writer Cooper Hood published a detailed op-ed this morning speculating on which Patty Jenkins film is keeping Rogue Squadron off the frontlines, to which he postulates — Wonder Woman 3 is the only force in entertainment big enough to keep something as pressing as a new Star Wars movie backed up indefinitely. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter previously revealed in an exclusive the details behind the delay, citing Jenkins’s packed schedule as pertinent reason to take Rogue Squadron out of next year’s production list.
Patty Jenkins, the feminist tour-de-force who directed Gal Gadot to universal acclaim in Wonder Woman and its bright neon followup Wonder Woman 1984, currently has two other features lined up for 2022 and 2023: the third Wonder Woman solo movie and an upcoming Cleopatra biopic, both starring the former Miss Israel. And between a major blockbuster and an independent arthouse film, the one to watch is surely the former. Wonder Wonder 3 is a trilogy-ender; no other Prime DC Extended Universe entry has had fans in a vice-grip. How exactly does Patty Jenkins plan on wrapping up the princess of Themyscira’s solo journey with respect to the character’s enduring legacy?
Despite a relatively underwhelming round two, Gadot’s solo outings as Diana Prince have captured the public interest to the point of uniting Hollywood’s most vocal critics, which is to say Marvel and DC fans. No other mainstream comic book movie has received a more unanimous response than the first Wonder Woman, with the last entry in the trilogy primed to provoke the same. Both camps have, time and again, agreed Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is better than most Marvel and DC movies combined, and it was the only time both sides have been willing to make peace and break bread. Though Wonder Woman 1984 wasn’t nearly as good as the first, Wonder Woman 3 is expected to touch on thematic mistakes made and deliver a cinematic experience worth sticking around for.
Since the iteration debuted to considerable praise in Zack Snyder’s superhero epic Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman as a franchise has become Warner Bros. and DC Films’s most bankable IP, beating out even series greats Superman and Batman, whose Prime versions are treading on unsteady ground following exceedingly divisive reviews of their last few movies. Ben Affleck’s final run as the Caped Crusader is in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, while Henry Cavill’s spot in the DC Extended Universe hierarchy remains nebulous at best. Unlike Gadot with Wonder Woman 3, Cavill’s Man of Steel was never granted a third solo outing, while Affleck’s seasoned Bruce Wayne was promptly replaced by Robert Pattinson’s Year Two Dark Knight as soon as production on the actor-director’s The Batman stopped short of capping a screenplay executives could be satisfied with. Out of the original Big Three, only Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman prevailed.
Though it’s true Aquaman, Suicide Squad, and Shazam! have since dominated the market their own way, no other big-budget DCEU feature has matched the cultural impact of Gadot’s Wonder Woman, described by many as a massive win for female-led superhero movies everywhere. Wonder Woman 3 will hopefully capitalize on the legacy of the first Wonder Woman rather than stumble on the frontlines the way the sequel did. The 2017 starrer was somber without being excessively grim, and hopeful without being needlessly campy. It was everything DC once was with Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve’s Superman — a stark reminder of why superheroes are and should forever be ineffable, incorruptible beacons of truth, hope, and justice.
Wonder Woman 3 is still in early pre-production stages. Patty Jenkins is still reportedly ironing out the screenplay, with a full-blown character arc that spans at least two more movies. No release date has been announced. The only DC Extended Universe film currently scheduled for 2023 is Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which concluded principal photography in August. If Jenkins is indeed moving forward with Wonder Woman 3 in lieu of Rogue Squadron, the third installment in Gal Gadot’s solo trilogy should hit theaters sometime late 2023.
