Wonder Woman Director Discusses The Lack Of Female Superhero Films

For years, assumptions ran rampant about girls and their connection to comic books. Many felt […]

September 5, 2017, 6:30pm

For years, assumptions ran rampant about girls and their connection to comic books. Many felt women overlooked the medium, but time has proven that more girls are populating the fandom daily – and they are eager to see themselves represented on the big screen. Marvel Studios has helped ease that itch with characters like Black Widow and Scarlet Witch, but its first female-led blockbuster won’t debut until Captain Marvel arrives on the scene.

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As for DC Entertainment, the company has been more proactive in its theatrical planning. Wonder Woman will get her first live-action standalone feature this June, and Patty Jenkins was the person tasked with directing the much-anticipated film. Women all around the world are ready to see the iconic comic heroine take up her golden lasso in her own film, and Jenkins is now opening up about the on-going controversy surrounding female-driven superhero films.

In an interview with Empire, Jenkins was asked about her thoughts on why it has taken so long for a superhero film to get on with a female lead. Here’s what the director had to say:

“I think it’s pretty significant, but I also didn’t think about it that way at all. I tried not to think about it, and that’s the great thing about being a woman director doing it, is I was like, “Oh, I’m just making a superhero movie.” I’m not looking at her as being any different than any other superhero. And that’s the victory,” Jenkins said.

“I think the reason that there wasn’t a woman superhero made for a long time is because people were assuming that it had to be a different kind of thing. Or more rarefied, or something. This is Wonder Woman. There’s nothing different. There’s Batman, there’s Superman, there’s Wonder Woman,” she continued. “She’s the full-blown real deal. So it’s very significant, but I also just went forth trying to make a great superhero film the same way I would have with any of them, which was great.”

When Wonder Woman comes out, the film will inevitably act as a litmus test for how well a female-led superhero film fares at the box office. Fans will need to put their money where their protests are to fund investment in future films like this one. And, if the audience gets its way, then Marvel Studios may one day actually green-light a solo Black Widow film.

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

Joining Gadot in the international cast are Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner and Saïd Taghmaoui. Patty Jenkins directs the film from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns, story by Zack Snyder and Allan Heinberg, based on characters from DC Entertainment. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston.

The film will be released on June 2, 2017.