Wonder Woman Director On What Can Fix Lack Of Female Directors

With an impressive response thus far from critics and predictions for a strong opening weekend, all eyes are on Wonder Woman‘s debut this weekend. And with the film being the first female-led and female-directed superhero movie in the modern day, many are hoping that the positive response to the DC Extended Universe will cause other studios to follow suit.

According to Wonder Woman‘s director, Patty Jenkins, an increase in female directors behind the scenes is easier than Hollywood thinks – they just need to deliberately search for those storytellers.

“I think more diverse stories will cause you to hire more diverse writers [and] will cause you to hire more diverse directors.” Jenkins explained to Variety at Wonder Woman’s Los Angeles premiere on Thursday. “And obviously, the audience is there.”

Jenkins broke into the industry with the 2003 film Monster, which earned an Oscar for its star, Charlize Theron. The director was later tapped to helm the Marvel property Thor: The Dark World, but departed from the film in 2011 due to creative differences.

But with Wonder Woman, Jenkins appears to be setting a series of significant precedents. The film is one of the very few live-action, female-directed films with budget of more than $100 million, joining the ranks of Katheryn Bigelow’s K-19: The Widowmaker and The Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. Two more films will join that club in the year after Wonder Woman‘s release – Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time and Niki Caro’s live-action reboot of Mulan.

In addition, the superhero genre is beginning to include more female actors as well. Anna Boden will co-direct Marvel Studios’ 2019 film Captain Marvel, and Gina Price-Blythwood was most recently tapped to direct Sony’s Silver Sable and Black Cat.

Jenkins isn’t the only creator in Hollywood recently speaking out on the industry’s issues with gender diversity. Jessica Chastain recently made comments about a “disappointing” lack of diversity between female characters in films while on the jury at Cannes Film Festival. A video of her comments has since gone viral, even being shared by the previously-mentioned DuVernay.

Wonder Woman currently has a 4.10 out of 5 ComicBook User Anticipation Rating, making it the ninth most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com readers. Let us know how excited you are about Wonder Woman by giving it your own ComicBook User Anticipation Rating below.

Before she was Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), she was Diana, Princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, Diana meets an American pilot (Chris Pine) who tells her about the massive conflict that’s raging in the outside world. Convinced that she can stop the threat, Diana leaves her home for the first time. Fighting alongside men in a war to end all wars, she finally discovers her full powers and true destiny.

Wonder Woman is directed by Patty Jenkins, from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg & Geoff Johns, story by Heinberg & Zack Snyder and Jason Fuchs, and stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner and David Thewlis.

Wonder Woman opens in theaters June 2, 2017.

MORE WONDER WOMAN NEWS: Gal Gadot On How Wonder Woman Feeds Into Her Justice League Role / Wonder Woman Director Addresses Criticism Of “Skimpy, Sexy Outfit”/ Director On Diana Versus Other Superheroes / Wonder Woman Artist Reveals What He Loves About The Movie