Wonder Woman 3

Wonder Woman 3 seemed like a foregone conclusion. The DC superhero has been an extremely successful character for Warner Bros., and the ending of Wonder Woman 1984 definitely left us at a place where a follow-up seemed necessary. We have done our best to scour the internet for every bit of info we could find out about Wonder Woman 3‘s cancelation and what the film could have been about.

Here is everything we know about Wonder Woman 3.

WONDER WOMAN 3 CANCELED DUE TO DC CHANGEOVER

When news hit that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was not returning, doubt began to spread in the minds of DC fans of whether or not a Wonder Woman 3 would actually be happening. As it turns out, those who doubted the DC Universe would move forward with the trequel were correct. Although many thought Jenkins had left the project due to creative differences, the director herself has said that this claim is not true and that there was nothing she could do to keep the project going.

When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC cinema control in October 2022, the pair turned Warner Bros. DC plans upside down. According to The Hollywood Reporter, these plans do not currently involve making a third Wonder Woman, both due to efforts to save on the $32 million it would cost to keep Gal Gadot and Jenkins on the project and because Jenkins’ script treatment didn’t match what Gunn and Safran are planning for DC’s future.

It is currently uncertain if Wonder Woman has any future with DC moving forward. In December 2022, Gadot tweeted her appreciation to fans and mentioned her excitement over sharing the character’s “next chapter.” While this may suggest that Wonder Woman will still appear in future DC films, it is unclear if the actress knew the project was DOA. On the other hand, DC’s upcoming film, Flash, will involve time travel and possible multiverse plot points, which can open the doors for any character to reappear in the franchise.

Jenkins is still set to continue her Star Wars: Rogue Squadron project with Disney.

GAL GADOT HAD BEEN CONFIRMED TO RETURN

Shortly after the release of Wonder Woman 1984, there was an official announcement that Wonder Woman 3 was a done deal. Warner Bros. announced the third film after seeing the returns for Wonder Woman 1984, and they had made it clear that Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins would be back. Exactly how involved they would have been in the story and directing was never disclosed, but this was a pretty clear indication that the studio was happy with the franchise and wanted to see it continue forward with the two central figures that helped make it a success before the studio takeover by Gunn and Safran.

PATTY JENKINS WAS SET TO WRITE AND DIRECT WONDER WOMAN 3

Obviously, everyone expected Patty Jenkins to return to the director’s chair for Wonder Woman 3. She directed the last two films – Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 – and even contributed to the story and script for the last installment. However, her return was not exactly a guarantee at the time of the announcement that a third movie was coming.

Jenkins had expressed a desire to return to the franchise, but she was worried about the film being put straight to streaming and not getting a proper theatrical distribution. This was brought on by Warner Bros.’s entire 2021 theatrical slate opening on HBO Max simultaneously as well as opening in a traditional theatrical release.

While Warner Bros. had said that 2022 releases for major films would be in theaters, 2020 proved there are no guarantees for movie releases going forward. There is no indication whether or not Warner Bros. plans to permanently make this their distribution model, but if they did, it sounded like Patty Jenkins would have avoided Wonder Woman 3.

Hopes were high that audiences would be able to see Patty Jenkins return to possibly close out a trilogy and leave her incarnation of this iconic character on a high note. She has certainly done that with Wonder Woman 1984 (read our 5-star review), but it would have been awesome for her to come back for one last go-around with Diana Prince.

Notably, Jenkins is in high demand right now. She is currently set to direct Star Wars: Rogue Squadron as well as a new take on Cleopatra, so her availability might have been an issue for Wonder Woman 3.

Despite these other projects, both Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot officially confirmed that they would be returning for Wonder Woman 3 in October of 2021 during DC’s FanDome event. Before the film was canceled, they assured audiences that the movie was still coming and the pair were both still involved. And with this, Patty Jenkins said the script and screenplay were completed.

JASON MOMOA WAS RUMORED TO APPEAR IN WONDER WOMAN 3

In November 2021, rumors bubbled to the surface that Jason Momoa would star in Wonder Woman 3 as Aquaman. That Hashtag Show claimed they had inside information the villain of the film would have been the powerful demigod Arion. Whatever the bad guy’s plan was, it would have caused trouble in both Diana’s homeland of Themyscira and Atlantis, bringing Aquaman into the film.

LYNDA CARTER WOULD HAVE RETURNED FOR WONDER WOMAN 3

Audiences who watched Wonder Woman 1984 will remember that the Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter appeared in the movie. But she was also meant to return for Wonder Woman 3!

The actress had been excited as she took part in the early promotion for the third film, assuring fans that it was coming and she would be taking part. It was never revealed how large her role would have been this time around.

WONDER WOMAN 3 WAS TO TAKE PLACE IN THE PRESENT DAY

Both of the Wonder Woman films have been period pieces. The first film took place in 1918 and set itself around the first World War. The sequel took place in 1984 and took full advantage of its retro setting. This led many fans to speculate what time period Wonder Woman 3 would be set in. However, Patty Jenkins herself mentioned that she believed the franchise had to move forward.

Wonder Woman 3 seemed to be planned to be set in the modern day. We have seen Diana in modern settings in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, as well as the bookend sections of the first Wonder Woman film. However, she has never had a solo adventure set in the present. If Patty Jenkins continued on with the franchise, it sounded like her plans would have been to put Diana in our present and see what kind of problems she would have to face.

In fact, she was thinking about a very specific issue when it comes to Wonder Woman 3.

PATTY JENKINS SAID CORONAVIRUS CHANGED THE STORY

Apparently, Patty Jenkins had been working on the story for Wonder Woman 3, but it had undergone a significant change because of the coronavirus pandemic. “I’ve really hit the pause button,” Jenkins told Total Film. “Because the truth is, where that plotline was coming from was our state of being six months ago. And so I want to make sure that I’m totally absorbing whatever the result of this pandemic is.”

This was an extremely interesting tidbit of information about Wonder Woman 3. Did it mean that the third film in the series would have actively acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic? Or was Jenkins simply saying that she wanted to judge where the world was at once the pandemic finally ended before committing to a specific story? Either way, it sounded like she was giving serious consideration to whatever the plot of the third entry would be.

THE PLOT DETAILS FOR WONDER WOMAN 3 WEREN’T KNOWN

No one knew the exact plot of Wonder Woman 3 other than it looked like it would be set during the present day. It would have been interesting to see if the plot was going to be affected at all by Zack Snyder’s Justice League. We knew that this new cut was planned to be the accepted canon for the DC Extended Universe films. Could there be events that happen in that new version that could have played into the eventual story for Wonder Woman 3?

GAL GADOT WAS MEANT TO HAVE OTHER DC APPEARANCES OTHER THAN WONDER WOMAN 3

Giant Freakin Robot had the exclusive that Gal Gadot wasn’t going to just be making Wonder Woman 3 and calling it quits with the now-rebranded DCU. There were plans in place to have her character appear in other movies or maybe even series along the way.

It will be interesting to see what happens now that James Gunn is leading the franchise forward. There’s some chance we see a much more coordinated effort to align the stars in the DC universe, at least in a more cohesive way than we’ve seen in the past.

THERE WAS NEVER AN OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE

There was never a set release date for Wonder Woman 3, but we can actually deduce when the earliest was that we could have seen it. If Patty Jenkins stayed with the series and both Cleopatra and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron were released on schedule, the earliest we could have seen the third film in the franchise would be 2024.

Warner Bros./DC probably wouldn’t have wanted to wait too much longer than that on a follow-up. The first film came out in 2017, and it was three years later that we got Wonder Woman 1984.

If it ended up being four years between Wonder Woman 1984 and Wonder Woman 3, that would have probably been as big a gap as the series could handle. Anything longer and fans might have lost interest.