Wonder Woman 1984 Didn’t Go Back to Themyscira at First

As fans learned in the first Wonder Woman movie, when Diana left the isolated island nation of Themyscira, she was forbidden to return and visit her friends, mentors, and mother. So why do we see glimpses of the paradise island in the trailers for Wonder Woman 1984? Well, that wasn’t originally a part of the plan according to director Patty Jenkins, but she recently explained that they made a choice late in the game to return to Themyscira for the beginning of the movie, though there is a caveat in this sequence for Diana’s journey — it will take place as a flashback to when she was still a child.

Jenkins spoke with Empire Magazine for a feature about Wonder Woman 1984 when she was asked about the decision to include these flashbacks in the upcoming DC Comics movie.

“It made sense to start again with where she comes from, to have the juxtaposition to who she is in our world,” Jenkins said, with the added benefit that it allowed them to include Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen once again.

Jenkins also opened up about the film’s villains, which will feature one of Wonder Woman’s most iconic foes in Cheetah making her big screen debut while the DC Comics villain Maxwell Lord will also play a major role. With Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal playing the characters respectively, fans should expect to see this partnership make for some formidable adversaries.

The road to villainy all begins when Diana’s co-worker Barbara Minerva receives an opportunity to change her life and become more like Wonder Woman… or so she thinks.

“What makes Barbara turn into Cheetah is feeling like she’s never been as good as someone like Diana,” Jenkins explained. “She reminds me of certain people I’ve known who have such low self-confidence, that they’re always holding themselves back. Then once they start to embrace change, out comes this ugly resentment built up over all those years.”

Jenkins previously explained at CCXP that Lord practically defines the sense of excess and entitlement that was prevalent in the ’80s.

“Max Lord is a character very much of the time period the movie is in, he’s the King of Infomercials, and he’s selling a dream to the public, and he’ll do anything to be successful. But sometimes when you get what you want, greatness comes with a price. So that’s Maxwell Lord.”

Wonder Woman 1984 is currently set to premiere in theaters on August 14th.

[h/t Empire via SYFY]