Wonder Woman: James Gunn confirms new iteration in the works

Wonder Woman and her lasso of truth is returning to our screens.

DC Studios co-boss and god of the nerds, James Gunn, confirmed that the team was working to bring back the iconic book character.

“We’re working on Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman’s being written right now,” he told EW.

Gunn, best known for his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, clarified his plans after Warner Bros chief executive David Zaslav last month alluded to the project during an earnings call when he said that Wonder Woman, along with Superman, Batman and Supergirl would be crucial to DC’s plans.

“I think that’s accurate, actually,” Gunn told EW. “I think (Zaslav) got that from something I said. I wouldn’t say only those four characters, but I would say that those four characters are incredibly important to us.

“Right now, I feel great about where two of those characters are, and then we’re dealing with the other two.”

Gunn and his producing partner Peter Safran took over DC’s screen slate in late 2022, and revealed a slew of projects for the next decade. At the time, Wonder Woman was not on the list.

The first feature film, Superman, is set to be released in July while Supergirl is in production with Australian actor Milly Alcock in the role.

Robert Pattinson is due to reprise his role as Batman in a sequel, but the Matt Reeves Caped Crusader movies sit outside the Gunn-controlled narrative universe. Gunn will eventually introduce his version of Batman separate to Pattinson.

When Gunn and Safran took the reins, they set about rebooting the screen versions of the comic book house’s iconic characters.

That meant the DC universe that was, at first, overseen by Zack Snyder was retired, and the actors who had played those roles – Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Zachary Levi as Shazam and Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam – were turfed out.

Jason Momoa will still be involved in Gunn’s DC slate but not as Aquaman, a character he played in four films. He has been recast as Lobo, and will make a cameo appearance in the Supergirl movie.

Affleck had already stepped back from playing Batman but the others were expected to reprise their characters down the line. Cavill had been previously benched but had just made a comeback as Superman and excitedly announced he would don the cape again when he was culled.

Gadot too thought she would play Diana Prince/Wonder Woman again. A third collaboration between Gadot and director Patty Jenkins had been greenlit by the previous studio bosses.

Gadot later claimed, “I was invited to a meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran and what they told me, and I’m quoting, ‘You’re in the best hands, we’re going to develop Wonder Woman 3 with you. (We) love you as Wonder Woman – you’ve got nothing to worry about’. So, time will tell.”

After Gadot’s comments in August 2023, DC Studios confirmed Wonder Woman 3 wasn’t happening. Jenkins had already written a treatment for the project.

Whatever the next iteration of Wonder Woman looks like, it won’t be Gadot returning to the role. Gunn confirmed he has yet to cast the character, and he didn’t say who was writing the script.

Gadot was the first big-screen live-action version of the character created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston. She debuted the character in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and then went on to star in a Justice League movie and two standalone films.

With an $US824 million box office, the 2017 Wonder Woman movie became the highest-grossing feature to be directed by a woman, but the 2020 sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, failed to repeat the success because of its release timing during COVID.

Before Gadot, Lynda Carter famously played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV show, and was, for decades, the defining screen version. She made a cameo in Wonder Woman 1984 in the post-credits scene.

Gunn is also developing a Wonder Woman-adjacent TV series called Paradise Lost, which is a prequel set on Diana Prince’s mystical home island of Themyscira.