There are scenes in the 2009 graphic novel Wolverine: Old Man Logan that have even the most hardened comic book fan crying into its pages. Red Skull wearing the gruesome armour of a long since demised Captain America; the defeated bodies of most of the X-Men; Ant-Man in Giant-Man mode sprawled out dead against an icy hellscape. It is an alternate version of comic-book reality in which there is a major superhero cull, and Marvel’s supervillains finally take eternal control of the Earth.
Something similar took place recently at Warner Bros-owned DC. Ever since head honcho James Gunn was handed the keys to the kingdom, there has been a sense that the old crew introduced by Zack Snyder – Henry Cavill’s Superman, Ben Affleck’s Batman (and perhaps Michael Keaton’s only recently returned version, too) – were being put out to pasture. And yet, news this week suggests the slate is not being completely wiped clean, for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is reportedly coming back for a fresh outing, just as we were all fearing we might never see her again.
Is anyone remotely shocked that Gadot is being retained while Affleck and Cavill are rudely sidelined? It seems that the shift in the multiverse that took place at the end of Andy Muschietti’s The Flash was enough to rid us of a gun-toting, knuckle-headed dark knight and an always slightly-beige man of steel, but not quite potent enough to excise the luminous Israeli actor from the picture.
It was only in June that Gadot was talking about feeling liberated to pursue other projects, after the cancellation of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 3. But Gunn has always left open the possibility of her return. There were positive signs when her cameo in The Flash was not (as had been reported) cut at the last minute, but until very recently it still looked like we had seen the last of the Amazonian princess.
Then again, there are so many constantly shifting parts to the current DC farrago that few would blink an eyelid if George Clooney was suddenly recast as the caped crusader or Halle Berry returned as Catwoman. Nobody really knows what is going on, except that Gunn is reconfiguring the DC world in his own image, and there is suddenly a sliver of hope that some of the studio’s output might finally make sense.
What happened in the last few weeks to convince Gunn et al that they should develop a new movie around Gadot? Perhaps it’s that Jenkins’ fabulous 2017 film Wonder Woman remains one of the only standout successes of the now defunct “Extended Universe” era, and gave us good reason to think Diana of Themyscira deserved to be centre stage on the DC mic. Gadot has the kind of exotic, statuesque star power that would keep her in the geek pantheon long after these movies left the multiplexes. Had DC really abandoned her, it would only have been forced to bring her back a few years down the line to raucous cheers from the fanboy and fangirl chorus.
Could the same really be said for Affleck and Cavill? Even if Jenkins’ 2020 sequel Wonder Woman 1984 was middling at best, it was still a better movie than 90% of DC’s output, and a rare chance to see the usually underplayed Pedro Pascal hamming it up to high heaven as baddie Maxwell Lord.
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When it comes down to it, Gadot is one of the greatest examples of nailed-on superhero casting since Christopher Reeve signed up to play Superman or Robert Downey Jr threw caution to the wind by taking on Marvel’s Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. Which other costumed titans have found their perfect real-world cipher? Perhaps Chris Hemsworth as the celestially beefy yet self-effacing Thor, or Christian Bale as a devastatingly modern, darkly mature and messed-up Batman.
There have been previous examples of comic book superheroes crossing from one failed studio regime into a brave new world under fresh leadership – not least Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s impending returns as Deadpool and Wolverine in the forthcoming Deadpool 3. But will Wonder Woman span the Snyder and Gunniverses with barely a whiff of a character shift, or will we see a completely new Diana in the new DC multiverse?
One thing seems certain: Gunn has seen fit to wipe the slate clean with stupendous determination and no shortage of self-confidence. If Gadot’s Wonder Woman is being kept on, we can only assume she will have a major part to play in the future of the new regime. I don’t see anyone complaining.
