Gal Gadot Reveals Why Wonder Woman Won't Use Her Sword and Shield in Sequel

Wonder Woman 1984's first trailer debuted over the weekend, and it showcased a pretty epic new adventure for Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Amongst the '80s nostalgia and surprising returns, the trailer featured a pretty wide array of fight scenes -- which featured an interesting new evolution for Wonder Woman's fighting style. As opposed to her previous portrayals in the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman is not seen using her Godkiller sword and shield, instead opting to rely on her Lasso of Truth. In a recent interview with CinePop, Gadot addressed this change, and revealed that there's a good narrative reason behind it.

"Wonder Woman does not carry a weapon," Gadot explained. "We had an intention to let go of the sword, because there's something very aggressive with a sword. If you have a sword, it means you need to use it. So we wanted to give that up. And we didn't feel that the shield was necessary either. She's a goddess, she can fight, she's super strong, and she has the skills. So no, she has the gauntlets. She has the lasso. She has her tiara and that's about it."

Given the change in antagonists from Wonder Woman to WW84, this mindset definitely makes sense. Decades after Diana defeated the vengeful armored god Ares (David Thewlis), WW84 will see her face off against both Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Barbara Ann Minerva/Cheetah (Kristen Wiig), whose rivalries against Diana appear to take less of a combative route. Plus, it's hard to deny that it looks awesome seeing Diana use the Lasso of Truth to fight off bad guys and literally ride lightning.

"You know what was cool," the film's director, Patty Jenkins said in a recent interview. "We're treating the era differently than I've seen so far, which I feel like there have a lot of interesting versions of doing the era. In our version, as a child of the '80s myself, yes there was funny, ha-ha outfits I can't believe I wore, for sure."

"But there's also incredible music, incredible art," the director continued. "And so I really felt like the 1980s is mankind at their most extreme and at their best. It was when we could do anything we wanted and we had no idea of the price yet. So we have really committed to that version of the '80s, where it's not needle drops, and it's not a bunch of jokes. It's actually the most aspirational and elegant version of the '80s in many places."

Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.