8 Possible Reasons For Steve Trevor's Return In Wonder Woman 1984

At the end of 2017’s hit superhero blockbuster Wonder Woman, the title character is driven to defeat the villain Ares by the sacrifice made by her new friend Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pine. He delivers a strong message about the power of love over hate right before giving his life, and that’s what motivates her to win the final battle.

But then when the first images of the sequel Wonder Woman 1984 were released with Pine all over them, fans had a lot of questions. How is he alive? How does he look the same in 1984 as he did in 1918? Well, here are 8 Possible Reasons For Steve Trevor’s Return In Wonder Woman 1984.

The plane crash didn’t really kill him

Steve Trevor is expected to “come back to life,” but that’s contingent on the idea that he actually died in Wonder Woman. We didn’t see him die. We just saw him fly off with some poison and blow himself up to save the world.

As we’ve seen from other comic book movies, if we don’t actually see them perish (and even then, that’s no guarantee), then they’re probably still alive. Red Skull got sucked into a beam of light in the sky, but we didn’t see him actually die, so he showed up on Vormir seven years later. Maybe the blast didn’t kill Steve – it might have sent him forward in time or imbued him with immortality.

The gods intervened

Chris Pine as Steve Trevor and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

What differentiates Wonder Woman from other superheroes is that she’s a goddess. In that sense, she is the Thor of the DC universe. She’s the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and Zeus. So, maybe the gods will simply intervene to resurrect Steve Trevor, or one of them decided to come down to Earth in Steve’s body to help Diana in her battle against the supervillain Cheetah.

Maybe one of the gods has been watching Diana and simply feels like doing her a favor. Either way, we know that this is a fictional world containing actual gods, so godly intervention almost definitely has something to do with Steve’s return.

It isn’t Steve Trevor at all; it’s his son (or grandson)

Chris Pine as Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman

In the old Lynda Carter Wonder Woman TV series, Playgirl model Lyle Waggoner played Steve Trevor in the initial World War II setting. But then when the show leaped forward in time, Waggoner still starred in the show. He just played Steve Trevor’s son, Steve Trevor, Jr.

This was a convenient way to keep the show’s cast intact, but it could also explain how Chris Pine makes an appearance in Wonder Woman 1984. Maybe Steve did die at the end of Wonder Woman, but he had a son, and maybe that son (or the son’s son) will be the character Pine plays in Wonder Woman 1984.

Steve was cloned

The DC Extended Universe is a very fantastical franchise with both magical elements and futuristic technological advancements, so there’s every chance that the Steve Trevor we see in Wonder Woman 1984 is just a clone – or a cyborg. That seems to be the only way to truly explain how a guy we saw die in 1918 is alive and well, and looking exactly the same, in 1984.

There might be a surprising scene in which Diana notices Steve has no belly button and the whole ordeal is revealed in monologue form. There’s any number of ways this could be expressed on film, but either way, it’s very exciting.

It’ll just be another inexplicable comic book resurrection

There’s a running joke in the comic book community that characters who die don’t stay dead for very long. Superman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Batman – they’ve all died and come back to life a bunch of times.

We saw the Man of Steel get killed and buried in Batman v Superman, and then he was brought back to life in Justice League with the help of a generic MacGuffin called a Mother Box. Maybe in Wonder Woman 1984, Steve Trevor’s return will be quickly brushed over and explained by some other generic MacGuffin that has the power to bring people back to life.

He’s part of some experiment by the U.S. government

The Wonder Woman sequel isn’t just set during the 1980s – its action is directly linked to the Cold War, the battle of wits between the U.S. government and the Soviet Union. Back then, as Americans feared an invasion by Russia, the government was pretty much willing to do anything to keep the homeland safe.

With that in mind, there’s a chance that Steve Trevor’s reappearance in Wonder Woman 1984 is due to him being part of some experiment by the U.S. government. They could be copying the DNA of their best fallen soldiers to create the perfect army to fend off the Russians.

His resurrection is part of the bargain that gets Diana involved in the action

Pedro Pascal’s role in Wonder Woman 1984 has yet to be disclosed, but some fans have predicted he’ll be playing the rich and powerful businessman Maxwell Lord. He’ll team up with Kristen Wiig’s archeologist character Barbara Ann Minerva in the search of an ancient artifact that can give him the powers of a god.

Things go awry when Minerva stumbles upon the artifact that gives her the powers of the Cheetah goddess and she turns against Lord. So, Lord asks Diana Prince to protect him and, in return, he resurrects Steve Trevor. That’s just one theory, but it’s a popular one among fans.

He’s not really there

Just because Chris Pine is in Wonder Woman 1984, it doesn’t necessarily mean his character somehow came back to life. One leading fan theory about his role in the sequel is that, while Chris Pine appears in the movie and Steve Trevor appears alongside Diana Prince, he isn’t really there.

Maybe Diana is having visions of him, as her latest mission reminds her of her time fighting in the First World War. Steve helped her get through the last adventure, so maybe he’ll help her get through this one – even if he’s still dead and only appears to her as a hallucination.