“Rogue Squadron” may not be dead after all, but according to Patty Jenkins, “Wonder Woman 3” (or another “Wonder Woman” movie in the new DCU) certainly is. On TCM‘s “Talking Pictures” podcast, the director confirmed she’s done making “Wonder Woman” movies for DC. “Yeah, for the time being, or easily forever,” she said, reiterating, “Easily forever, yeah.”
READ MORE: ‘Wonder Woman’: Gal Gadot Has Talked With James Gunn & Peter Safran About A New Sequel
That sounds definitive, but maybe James Gunn and Peter Safran have someone else in mind to helm a film about the superheroine? It’s not out of the question, but Jenkins confirmed that the character is just not top of mind for DC Studios right now. Still, the director sympathized with Gunn and Safran’s massive undertaking of “Gods And Monsters” and its many different titles.
“No, they’re not interested in doing any Wonder Woman [films] for the time being,” Jenkins answered. “Listen, it’s not an easy task what’s going on with DC. James Gunn and Peter Safran have to follow their own heart into their own plans, so I don’t know the ‘why’ of what they’re planning on doing and why, and so I have sympathy for what a big job it is. They have to follow their heart and do what they’re interested in and do what they’ve got planned.”
As for the negative reaction to “Wonder Woman 1984,” Jenkins said, “What goes up must come down,” adding she knew audiences would be “gunning for us” if the movie wasn’t good. “There was more pressure on us ‘cause I knew people were gunning for us,” she said, citing the backlash to what some saw as a kind of “GirlBoss” feminism.
“I could feel the heat on my back and I thought, ‘Oh, they’re gonna be gunning for us soon, what goes up must go down,” she explained. “So I went in to making “Wonder Woman 84″ going, ‘Uh, they’re gonna kick the shit out of us in one way or another.’ And the sad thing was I think we would’ve made a kajillion, trillion dollars because we were the number 1 selling DVD for a year and a half, but if it hadn’t come out in the middle of the pandemic…” Jenkins trailed off, seemingly done talking about the 2020 film.
It’s not as if “Wonder Woman 1984” is a bad film, but it wasn’t the critically acclaimed money-maker its 2017 predecessor was. But it’s not right for Jenkins to blame audience push-back, the pandemic, or other things for the movie’s relative failure. By the time “1984” reached audiences, any enthusiasm fans and critics had for the DCEU had waned, as evident in the lackluster numbers and reviews for every movie since (including “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which fans clamored to get for years).
In that case, it’s best for Jenkins to do what Warner Bros. has already done with the DCEU: wipe their hands of the past and chart a new direction forward. And if Gunn and Safran think Wonder Woman shouldn’t be at the forefront of new DCU projects (probably because her showing up will remind fans of what once was), then so be it.