WONDER WOMAN

Five things we know about Wonder Woman 1984 WorDS Paul bradshaW

Getting herself an ’80s-set part deux…

E veryone’s favourite Gal is back for a proper sequel after sharing the load in Justice League, with Wonder Woman 1984 expected to land next winter. Just a few weeks into the shoot, the cast and crew dropped by Comic-Con to tell us what to expect.

Everyone’s back. Including Chris Pine…

Gal Gadot is still Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins is still directing and Chris Pine is still Steve Trevor – despite dying in a huge chemical explosion at the end of the first movie. “Why is he back?” asks Jenkins. “That’s something I’m super excited for everyone to find out. But it’s a very important part of our movie.” Cynics will say it has something to do with the fact that he’s a bankable American man, but Steve has actually been killed off and resurrected several times in the comics.

Kristen Wiig is playing a cheetah…

Or the Cheetah, to be exact – the shapeshifting supervillain who, in the comics at least, is to Wonder Woman what the Joker is to Batman. Kristen Wiig was announced for the role back in March, though she wasn’t mentioned at the Con, leaving fans to speculate how big a role she’s actually set to play in WW84. Cast as the Barbara Ann Minerva variation of the character, if Wiig sticks to the comics she’ll be playing a neurotic archaeologist from Nottingham, who channels the powers of a wild cat, naturally.

It’s going to have a pretty good soundtrack…

As the title suggests, the movie jumps forward from Wonder Woman, and back from Justice League. “There’s lots of things set in the ’80s now, but this has a very different look and feel,” says Jenkins, showing some early footage of a shopping mall chase with bright, crisp new colour palette that looks very different to the WW1 texture of the first movie. “But the ’80s were also grand and wonderful with a lot of elegant and beautiful things too… and there was great music.”

Things are going to get nuclear…

It’s not just the soundtrack that’s set to be explosive. Moving the action to 1984 puts Diana right in the hottest part of the Cold War, with a nuclear arms race providing the perfect backdrop for whatever Cheetah is planning. “It really was mankind at its best and worst,” says Jenkins. “We’re aware of the price of our behaviour now, but we weren’t back then. The ’80s was us at our most extreme.” With filming taking place in and around several government buildings in Washington DC, the chances are that Diana’s not the only one wielding a superpower in WW84.

It’s not a sequel…

“This is its own story and it’s a completely different chapter,” says Gadot, explaining that no one signed on just to make another version of the first movie. “I want to make a whole new movie that’s as pure and unique in its right as the first one was,” adds Jenkins, going on to hint that the film will follow more of a loose comic-book continuity (which might explain how Steve comes back to life after 67 years). “The bar is high,” says Gadot, “but our aspirations are even higher.”

Director Patty Jenkins Starring

Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, kristen WiiG, Pedro PasCal eta 15 november 2019