Patty Jenkins may now be known as the filmmaker that has brought “Wonder Woman” to the big screen, but before that, her only other feature film as a director is “Monster” from way back in 2003. So, needless to say, her IMDB (outside of TV gigs) isn’t littered with a lot of feature film experience. This made her leap to superhero films pretty surprising as we reached the 2010s. Apparently, when she signed on with Marvel Studios to do “Thor 2” (which would go on to become “Thor: The Dark World”), that came after years of studios trying to pigeonhole her into a specific type of film. However, she always wanted to do more.
Speaking to Marc Maron on the WTF Podcast, Jenkins went into a bit more detail about her transition from the award-winning director of a prestigious serial killer drama like “Monster” to a full-fledged box office filmmaker on “Wonder Woman.” And judging by her comments, it was far from an easy road, especially walking away from her shot at Marvel Studios.
READ MORE: ‘Monster’ Director Patty Jenkins Exits ‘Thor 2’
“Word got out that I wanted to do a superhero film and to Marvel’s credit—on a movie that didn’t require a woman at all—they hired me,” Jenkins explained. “So, I’ve always been super grateful to them even though it didn’t work out.”
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Why didn’t it work out? Well, Jenkins, as a female filmmaker, is acutely aware of the pressures that fall on the shoulders of non-male directors, even though it’s completely not fair and ridiculously misogynistic.
“They wanted to do a story that I thought was not going to succeed, and I knew it couldn’t be me [to fail],” she explained. “It couldn’t be me that had that happen. If they hired any guy to do it, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I knew in my heart that I could not make a good movie out of the story they wanted to do.”
Reluctantly, Jenkins would then step away from “Thor 2,” and it was the right move to her credit, even bolder a decision when you consider that at the time, she hadn’t directed a feature film in ten years (“Monster” was 2003). ‘The Dark World’ would go on to land Alan Taylor as the director and is oft-regarded as the least popular Marvel Studios film to date (and one he had a miserable experience on). Though it still made decent enough money at the box office and would be popular enough to spawn “Thor: Ragnarok,” Taika Waititi’s sequel. And yes, Jenkins, like the rest of the world, loves ‘Ragnarok’ and Waititi.
“It was such a good movie,” she admitted. “Taika is the most genius fit for Thor of all time. It’s amazing. ‘Ragnarok’ is one of the best Marvel movies of all time. So good and so executed.”
As we previously reported, Jenkins still has an interest in Marvel characters, and if given the opportunity, she would be interested in tackling Black Widow or Spider-Man. So, even if it didn’t work out with ‘Thor 2,’ perhaps we can still see Jenkins over at Marvel eventually. Of course, she’d have to finish up work on her next film first, the much-anticipated “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron,” which is scheduled for December 2023 release.