Warning: potential SPOILERS for Wonder Woman 1984.
The iconic costume worn by Wonder Woman has always had more to do with sending a message than acting as actual armor--after all, Diana has her godly speed and strength (and shield) to protect her. But that's all about to change, with Wonder Woman 1984 putting Diana in a brand new suit of golden eagle armor torn straight from the comics. And now the filmmakers are confirming exactly why.
Back in the early days of set photos and early glimpses of action, when fans were still debating whether or not Gal Gadot's costume looked brighter and more colorful in 1984 than her origin film, the studio threw a knockout punch in the form of the first poster. Not just an image of Diana sixty years after her first movie, but one depicting her in a bodysuit of golden Wonder Woman armor. Comic book fans instantly spotted the adaptation of Diana's 'Golden Eagle Armor' from the character's history in the pages of DC Comics, worn ceremonially as a tribute to her home of Themyscira. But now that the filmmakers have broken their silence, the purpose of the armor may be the opposite of what many fans assume.
At the time it seemed shocking that Warner Bros. would reveal what appeared to be a massive story beat in the sequel, considering the spectacle and fan excitement around things like Superman's black suit, or any new Batman costume. Eventually the first trailer, official photos, and video teasers confirmed that Diana will suit up in the full armor, helmet, and massive golden wings. And as Screen Rant learned during a visit to the Wonder Woman 1984 set, the armor selected by director Patty Jenkins proved to be one of the biggest challenges for the costume department. Costume Designer Lindy Hemming offered the details on how Wonder Woman's new suit will function, in more practical ways than the comic books ever depicted:
This has been a long, long design project... trying to develop a lightweight, movable, sexy undersuit which is printed to look like some sort of armor, so it's like an armored suit that's very light, and lithe, and sinewy... and of course, referencing [the comic design], and referencing things from fashion catwalks, and all kinds of ideas. But in the end you try to make her... Strong, physically strong, and actually a beautiful piece of armor rather than a clunky piece of armor. The challenge has been to make it so that it's absolutely skintight. Metallic in its appearance, so you think it's a metal, but moves rather like an armadillo or something. It's really complicated to do that so she doesn't have to have the usual volume armor has. It’s worked. It's working.
Then the other thing about this suit is, there was this whole conversation about how in all of these illustrations there are some sort of wings. In the comic books there's always some sort of wings. So there's been miles and miles of debate that wings don't really go with this. So in the end, the wings have become her shields. They're my favorite things, where the wings are almost like paragliding wings. So at a clunk and a clunk, they become like Roman shields so she's protected. I won't give away the story of why that's the kind of protection she needs, but her fighting style is with the shields. I'm really pleased now because I think that there was no logic to it being a pair of wings, really. But there is a logic to gliding, to being something she can glide in on.
It will come as a surprise to those less familiar with the comics that as breathtaking as the Golden Eagle Armor may be, it doesn't typically serve a purpose--in the sense that Wonder Woman can fly on her own, making the wings mere ornamentation along with the metallic bird motif encasing Diana's head.
Hemming has addressed that feature as well, telegraphing the eagle motif earlier in the film. Where the first Wonder Woman movie began with Diana as a child, the sequel appears to be doing the same, revisiting the slightly older princess as she competes alongside Themyscira's greatest athletes in the Amazons' own 'Olympic Games.' Dressed in gold bodysuits (not dissimilar from that worn beneath the Eagle Armor's plates), the athletes compete for the honor of the coveted crown placed upon the winner's head. A crown Diana may not win, but whose inverted shape is now mirrored in Diana's new armor. As Hemming describes it, acting as "a sort of link between the end and the beginning of the film, in a way. The gold and the gold. Beginning and the end."
While Hemming stopped short of explicitly stating why Diana would need shields (also hinting that the armor would mark the climax of the film), director Patty Jenkins didn't mince words. Why is Diana going to find a suit of armor before the end of this story? Because it's the only way to survive her showdown with Cheetah:
I love that costume, and always have. We could have changed the original costume. I thought it was so funny that the press sort of ran away... There was some leaked rumor that we had a new costume, you guys now know that we do, but then they thought that the more colorful Wonder Woman costume was it. And it was all this debate about like, ‘Well it's not that different.’ I was like, 'First of all, I never even said that we were doing that.' It's rumor upon rumor upon rumor. I felt like it would be super exciting to have a new costume. That's a costume that I love so much. I was so excited to see it.
Because Wonder Woman's timeline is so horned in between different movies, it felt weird to suddenly give her a new Wonder Woman costume. Then she puts it back on, and [in] BvS she puts on the old, and it's even more... It just didn't quite make sense. So this was a fun way that actually is intrinsic to the storyline, that she needs a different style of armor to fight Cheetah, because Cheetah can get you on all of your limbs. So it was something that came very naturally of like, ‘How are you going to get into it with Cheetah, and how is that fight going to go?’ It just becomes a part of the early storyline that that's figured out... And it's articulated wings. It's a whole real costume with articulated wings. You're not going to have a practical fight in the entire suit, but we are actually building the entire suit, so it will be worn at different times.
Fans can hope to see more looks at this armor, the climactic battle, and perhaps even the first official look at Kristen Wiig's Cheetah design when Wonder Woman 1984 is shown off as part of DC's FanDome event on August 22nd.