The 2017 live-actionWonder Womanfilm was heralded as a fantastic entry to the DCU upon its original release, and while its sequel,Wonder Woman 1984, was more critically divisive, it still brought the character into a wholly new setting with a unique creative vision. Despite having more successful live-action outings in comparison to the rest of the DCU, the character’s third film has entered a precarious spot. Patty Jenkins, a major creative voice in the first two live-actionWonder Womanfilms, has officially been ousted from the third film, taking her vision for the character with her.
With the DCU being shaken up as a whole under theleadership of James Gunn, there’s no better time to take Wonder Woman back to her roots, with the best examples of this being her appearances in the animated DCU films. These films capture what makes the Amazon so engaging as a character, bringing her to the silver screen in a way that both respects the source material and adds to it in a meaningful way. WithWonder Woman 3now a long way away, it could take some notes from DC’s animated films.
What The Animated Films Do Differently
To compare the two sets ofWonder Womanfilms at first seems like apples and oranges. Yes, they’re fundamentally different at their core, based on the context that they were made in, the medium they were made with, and the source material used to create them. But, it’s worth noting what exactly the animated films do differently in terms of representing Wonder Woman as a character along with the ideas associated with the character.
The 2009and 2017 self-titled films, despite their differences, actually share some common ideas: they address Wonder Woman and the rest of her homeland, Themyscira, coming into contact with the outside world through the sudden arrival of an outsider, Steve Trevor. The framing around this idea and how Themyscira plays into the story differ significantly, however.
The animated film relies more on utilizing the direct threat of Ares on the world, along with fantastical elements ofundead armies, Greek demigods, and multiple appearances by Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. It plays the more wacky elements of Wonder Woman’s universe completely straight, embracing them with the ample capability that animation allows for. It also recognizes that Themyscira can be incredibly dangerous, as the film had to be cut down for content following anR-rating from the MPAA.
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The 2017 film, meanwhile, is tasked with introducing the character to a new audience while simultaneously grounding her in reality. Filming in live-action simply doesn’t allow for the same opportunities that animation provides, leading to a new direction being taken with the character.
Instead of acting directly on the world, Ares influences it passively through the onset of the Great War. It tackles a deeper issue of Wonder Woman’s conflict of stopping Ares while trying to understand the world outside Themyscira. It’s a fantastic direction to take the character, giving her a tangible threat that can’t be solved with punches and kicks. However, some have argued that this makes the film’s climactic battle feel more cartoony and out of place in comparison to the relatively grounded conflict that made the film so compelling.
Wonder Woman: BloodlinesandWonder Woman 1984, meanwhile, each go their own separate direction. The latter leans more heavily into the campy, fun side of the character, and for the most part, it works well enough. We get a fun reference to the invisible jet, and we get another inner conflict for Wonder Woman to confront, but some found the plot device of a wish-granting stone, along with the implications associated with it, to be confusing and mishandled in the grand scheme of the story, among other issues.
Bloodlines, in comparison, tackles an interesting aspect of Wonder Woman’s character that received little exploration: her relationships outside of Steve Trevor. It explores how her relationship with her mother changed after joining the world of man, how her distant relationship with Vanessa Kapatelis inadvertently led to the creation of the Silver Swan, and how Wonder Woman choosing to sacrifice a part of herself to defeat Medusa ultimately mends both relationships.
What Could Wonder Woman 3 Do?
Ideally, a thirdWonder Womanfilm could take the best of both worlds from the animated and live-action films. Seeing as how the James Gunn-ledThe Suicide Squadfilm was universally praised for its ability to play silly concepts completely straight, we can hope thatWonder Woman 3would do something similar with ideas that have been explored previously.
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Wonder Woman 3needs consistency. From start to finish, the animated films keep a relatively similar tone, embracing the absurdity of DC’s eccentric villains and her otherworldly powers without diving too deeply into more complex ideas. The live-action films could do something similar, embracing the fun side of Wonder Woman as a character while introducing more of hergallery of villainsto a wider audience. Alternatively, they could stick to the same serious tone established in the 2017 film, treating the character as someone who deals with the complex morality of life outside of her home.
Wonder Woman should take more direct inspiration from her animated counterpart. Across her focused films and appearances in the DC Animated Universe, she’s tackled a variety of issues, from being true to one’s self to fighting Nazisin World War II. There are all kinds of places you could take the character in just the contemporary United States alone,with boundless potential outside of it. Let’s hope thatWonder Woman 3continues to take the character in an interesting direction when it eventually does come out.
