Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins revealed that Warner Bros. intervened and made her change the final act of the first Wonder Woman film.
The latest DC movie, Wonder Woman 1984 will be arriving in time for Christmas on HBO Max and in theatres. It already debuted on few international markets earlier this month. Like 2017’s Wonder Woman, the sequel is receiving a positive response from most people who have seen it.
Gal Gadot returns as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen. The film is directed by Patty Jenkins and produced by Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, and Stephen Jones. The film’s screenplay credits include David Callaham, Patty Jenkins, and Geoff Johns.
RELATED: WATCH THE WONDER WOMAN 1984 FULL OPENING SCENE NOW!
The first film was a very special movie in many regards and it became a blockbuster, not only as a comic book movie but also as a movie with a female-centric story. Even though it was well-received by both audiences and critics alike the movie has a few flaws.
One of the most common criticisms about the original movie was the final act, which felt like a video-game trope. It focuses too much on a VFX-heavy battle between Diana Prince and Ares (David Thewlis). Normally in any film, having an epic climactic battle between two opposite ends doesn’t mean it is going to feel like a cliché. There was nothing wrong with that, but it felt somewhat stale in the case of Wonder Woman.
Seeing as it was the origin story of Amazon Warrior, Diana Prince’s journey was very personal, so to conclude it with a finale of huge explosions and a generic CGI villain felt a bit like a betrayal of what had come before. It didn’t completely fit with the tone of the rest of the film.
Now, for promoting her new movie, filmmaker Patty Jenkins is currently doing press junkets. While talking about the sequel she revealed that the studio played a role in changing Wonder Woman‘s often criticized final act.
WB Made Patty Jenkins Change Her Movie’s Ending
In a new interview with IGN, when asked about the choice of making the finale of the sequel feel more personal rather than a forced epic CGI battle like in the first film, Patty Jenkins reveals that she made a purposeful choice to have Wonder Woman 1984 end on a more personal note after being prevented from doing it in the first time around.
“The original end of the first movie was also smaller, but the studio made me change it at the last minute,” Jenkins explained. “And so, that’s always been a little bit of a bummer that that’s the one thing people talk about, because I agreed, and I told the studio we didn’t have time to do it. But, it was what it was, and I ended up loving it, but that wasn’t the original ending of the movie.”
If the studio didn’t intervene in the story at the last moment we would have gotten a much more satisfying end for the movie. I understand why the studio pushed for a large-scale battle, they wanted to make an action-heavy climax like any other comic book movie but making the director change the film is really bad.
RELATED: STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON FILM ANNOUNCED WITH PATTY JENKINS TO DIRECT
Considering how Jenkins agreed to the decision and put her best efforts shows her greatness. Since she liked what she did despite it is not what she planned makes this is not that bad scenario when compared to other DCEU movie situations with their directors. Since Wonder Woman‘s success looks like WB clearly has more trust in Jenkins this time and clearly, she is more satisfied with the sequel’s ending and had more fun.
Jenkins added, “This time around, I loved that it has both at the end. We had a visual effects [fight], a big battle which I just dug into and had such a blast executing, which I felt so satisfied with. But ultimately, the end of the movie is much more pared down, and that was really, really fun. No spoilers, there’s all kinds of stuff going on, but it was really fun to shape it differently.”
WW84 Official Synopsis: Set in 1984, during the Cold War, Diana/Wonder Woman comes into conflict with the Soviet Union and finds two formidable foes—media businessman Maxwell Lord (Pascal) and friend-turned-enemy Barbara Ann Minerva aka Cheetah (Wiig) while reuniting with her love interest Steve Trevor (Pine).
RELATED: PATTY JENKINS TEASES WONDER WOMAN 3 AND EXCITING AMAZONS SPIN-OFF CONNECTIONS
Patty Jenkins already said she will be back for the third film in the franchise ‘probably for the last time‘ and will also be involved in the spin-off film. Jenkins is heading to a galaxy far, far away as it was announced that she will be directing the next Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron. She will also reteam with Gal Gadot for Cleopatra movie after the threequel.
Wonder Woman 1984 releases in theatres and on HBO Max on December 25.
What do you think about this news? Did you like the Wonder Woman film ending? How excited are you for Wonder Woman 1984? Where will you watch the film in theatres or HBO Max? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section and be sure to come back to The Illuminerdi for more DC news.
