Wonder Woman Director Claims Warner Bros. Didn't Want to Read Her Script

Both fans and critics alike consider 2017's Wonder Woman to be a momentous achievement for the DC Extended Universe, yet director Patty Jenkins recently detailed that her experience with studio Warner Bros. came with a number of frustrations, including the studio refusing to read the scripts she submitted for the adventure. The director also went on to note that, despite helming the film, she felt as though she was merely there as a token female as opposed to being the creative who was responsible for bringing the film to life. She also expressed that the studio seemingly wanted the tone of the film to be much more gritty, mirroring the precedent set by films like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad.

"They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision," Jenkins shared with Marc Maron's WTF podcast, per The Playlist. "And my ideas? They didn't even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view. So that was definitely happening, even when I first joined Wonder Woman it was like, 'Uhh, yeah, ok, but let's do it this other way.' But I was like, 'Women don't want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people's heads off, that's not what— I'm a Wonder Woman fan, that's not what we're looking for. Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view."

Jenkins also noted that nervousness around the character wasn't only due to the tone of the DCEU in the wake of Man of Steel, as it went all the way back to when Christopher Nolan was working on his Batman films. Back in 2007, Jenkins passed on developing a Wonder Woman film because she was pregnant, though knew the studio was trepidatious about the endeavor due to the disappointments of other female-centered superhero films.

"They were nervous that it wasn't viable," Jenkins confessed. "They were all freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller ones that had failed, and also Christopher 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."

Jenkins' latest superhero film, Wonder Woman 1984, is currently in theaters and on HBO Max.

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