Patty Jenkins Had Been Trying To Direct A Wonder Woman Movie Since 2004

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Patty Jenkins Had Been Trying To Direct A Wonder Woman Movie Since 2004

Prior to her first DCEU outing in 2017, Patty Jenkins had been waiting since 2004 to direct a Wonder Woman movie, but the stars never aligned.

Prior to her first DCEU outing, Patty Jenkins had been waiting since 2004 to direct a Wonder Woman movie. Despite the popularity of the character, it took years to get a movie centered on Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, off the ground. Numerous people tried their hand at developing it, including Joss Whedon. However, it wasn't until Zack Snyder brought Diana into the burgeoning DCEU with 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that she finally received her own solo big screen adventure. Jenkins directed Wonder Woman, which was released in 2017 to great acclaim and amazing financial success.

At the time, Jenkins helped break barriers as a female director at the helm of a superhero movie. She recently returned to direct the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, an epic and colorful film that brings Diana into a brand new decade. Though not as well-received as Wonder Woman, the sequel has its fair share of supporters and has helped provide a sliver of life to still-struggling movie theaters amid the coronavirus pandemic. Warner Bros. is evidently satisfied with Wonder Woman 1984, as the studio has already greenlit Wonder Woman 3 and confirmed that Jenkins will return once more.

Her work with Wonder Woman is certainly a dream come true, as Jenkins revealed in a new interview that she has been waiting for a long time to helm a movie centered on the iconic hero. While appearing on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, Jenkins explained she had wanted to make a Wonder Woman movie all the way back in 2004, but Warner Bros. took some time to warm up to her vision. Jenkins said:

"I told Warner Bros. I wanted to do it in 2004. I met with them about it every two years between then and when I finally did it. They were nervous that it's not viable. They were all freaked out by the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller things that had failed. And also, Chris Nolan was making the Dark Knight thing, so I think they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC at that time."

Warner Bros. actually gave Jenkins the option to write and direct Wonder Woman in 2007, but as she was pregnant at the time, she turned it down. There was later some debate over whether she was the right person for the job, as Warner Bros. wanted to tell a specific story Jenkins didn't want. "There was a moment they wanted to do a story I wasn't the right person for, so I said, 'No, it can't be me,' and they hired somebody else for a little bit," Jenkins said. Warner Bros. later decided Jenkins could do as she wished.

Regardless of one's thoughts on Wonder Woman 1984, there's no question that Jenkins delivered an excellent superhero movie with Wonder Woman. In presenting a new origin story for Diana, audiences were thrilled, and many still consider it to be one of the best DCEU films. It will be exciting to see what Jenkins does with Wonder Woman 3 now that she has the opportunity to continue the story she first envisioned. Jenkins' future with the character and her world beyond Wonder Woman 3 is unclear, but at least audiences will get one more movie within the DC universe from her.