The first Wonder Woman movie changed the game for superhero blockbusters led by women in front of and behind the camera, so it's only right that the sequel Wonder Woman 1984 will defy every expectation for a sequel. A new setting, time period, magically-transformed villains, and even the return of Steve Trevor make director Patty Jenkins' follow-up seem to be taking just as many risks as the original.
Thanks to the new details and theories spinning out of Wonder Woman 1984's official FanDome trailer, fans have enjoyed tiny glimpses of Kristen Wiig's Cheetah, the comic book supervillain throwing the world into chaos, and even Wonder Woman's new golden armor. But when visiting the set of WW84 back in 2018, the unfinished costumes and effects meant even bigger questions were being asked. From the importance of the Cold War setting, the inspiration for Steve Trevor's return, and yes, her thoughts on the next movie in the series, find Patty Jenkins' full interview below.
The sequel to Wonder Woman could have gone any way, in terms of timeline or setting. You could have done it directly after Justice League, for instance. So why 1984?
There are two things. First of all, I'm a fan of lots of different genres of superhero films, but for her in particular, she just became Wonder Woman in the first movie. So I wanted a much more solo movie, and as soon as you go current day you really have to deal with all the other heroes. So I was like, ‘We need a movie about Wonder Woman, now in this world.’ So that was the leading thing, ‘We've got to see Wonder Woman before we ever get into all the other guys at the same time.’ But also, I loved about the first movie where you could talk about current day, but use the metaphor of another time to detach it from everybody getting particular about the details. And I thought that was so cool about 1917, 1918, where you could say, 'Yes, we're talking about war, mankind, mechanization of war, the way we make our choices,’ without anybody getting literal and without having to make up a war with much less weight.
I think the same thing is true about the ‘80s. We're talking about mankind at their worst, most excessive and their greatest, most grand and opulent, and artistically did some incredible creative things. And so instead of getting into the nitty gritty of right now and who's to blame and what's happening, it's a way for us to talk about that. This is basically the success of Western civilization. This is the success of modern mankind's way of living. And what does it look like to put Wonder Woman at the core of that? That was what I was psyched about, and the story just started to unfold really lending itself to [that]. Look, it's a very different version of the ‘80s, but I grew up watching Wonder Woman, loving Wonder Woman. So there's also something so American ‘70s and ‘80s about Wonder Woman too, that this is our own version of it. But I love being a part of it.
On the time period, this setting obviously fits in with the Cold War. How will that affect the film, or tie into the story?
It ties in in a big way. Interestingly, here we are again suddenly. I never thought we'd be so full circle again, talking about the same people on the same... I think the way that the world was at a modern standoff then is very evocative to what's happening now. But yeah, it definitely figures in. But everything is very balanced on each other. So when one thing goes astray, what does it do to everything else, et cetera, et cetera.
Can you talk about the origins of Cheetah's powers in this movie? Where they come from, and if they take inspiration from any specific version seen in the comics?
There are so many different versions of it, and I like them all. I'll leave that for seeing the movie, and how it happens in this movie. But really the same way I approached the first movie, where I was like, ‘What's the core of Wonder Woman that we're all fans of, and how do I honor that?’ That's what I cared about with Cheetah. So instead of saying I'm going to take [Liam Sharp's] version of it, or any one person's version of it, I really looked at all of the different incarnations of Cheetah and said, 'What's the core of Cheetah? Who is Cheetah in the world, and what does she stand for, and how do we [tell that]?' The story and Cheetah's storyline really evolved together quite naturally from the beginning.
When the Cheetah transformation finally does happen... the first Wonder Woman movie was fairly grounded, so how do you ground that? Since it is sort of larger than life.
First of all, it's all part of the story. But second of all, it's not unlike in the first movie how, just because something supernatural has been going on, you're teased into it, and then you realize that it's taking place at a greater level. It's kind of like that. There is definitely magical stuff going on in our movie, so it's not like the first thing that you've seen in the film.
With Cheetah, we know there is a clear comic book origin behind her character. With 'Maxwell Lord, the President of Black Gold,' what can you say about his motives in the movie? If there's anything that inspires him, that comic readers might be familiar with?
I think he's the epitome of mankind at their greatest success in business of that era, and oftentimes now. It's sort of like, ‘What happens when somebody is making a ton of money? How excusable are they? What can they do, and what can they get away with?’ That's very much what he symbolizes, both politics and Wall Street corporations.
The showpiece of the costumes is Diana's golden eagle armor. Can you talk about your decision to bring that in, and how it's used?
I was so excited about that. I love that costume in the lore and I was like, ‘We've got to do it.’ Oh my God, it's super complicated. So I love that costume and always have. We could have changed the original costume and 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. But yeah, 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. Also because Wonder Woman's timeline is so horned in between different movies, it felt weird to suddenly give her a new Wonder Woman costume, and 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?’ And so it just becomes a part of the early storyline that that's figured out.
Oh yeah, 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 actually are building the entire suit, so it'll be worn at different times.
When Kristen Wiig was chosen for Cheetah, she obviously has strong dramatic chops, but was her background in physical comedy something you thought about in terms of the overlapping combat and action?
Definitely. Definitely. So, one of my favorite versions of Cheetah often is that she's starts out as friends with Diana. And so when I think about how great, how much I loved having Etta Candy in last time, and I love having humor, I like having a humorous balance. Anybody who's jealous of you and wants to be like you, why not make that a great, fun, charming, interesting character? And even if what we're talking about is an excess of our times, I kind of am interested in telling a grounded story of how you become, how you want to be like somebody else. And so she became a great version because she has both.
Everyone wants to know how Steve Trevor comes back, obviously. Can you talk about the decision to bring him back, and why?
This entire story came to me probably midway -- not the whole thing, not in great detail -- but the shape of this came to me midway through shooting the first movie. It was not born from, ‘Oh shit, that was so great. We have to get Steve back.’ It's actually all of the story is one story that fits hand in hand. It was something that I loved the two of them together. I think they're super great and so it is really nice to have them back together. But also just this whole story, the way that it built... I obviously can't tell you. The truth is it's a secret, but it doesn't even matter that it's a secret. You'd still have to see the movie to really understand it.
The big theme in the movie is what you ultimately desire, and what happens when you get it. How does that relate to Diana and Steve, and revisiting them together?
It certainly reverberates across every single storyline. It's not exactly how that all happens, but it's like the theme of the movie is about excess and want, so it's certainly that theme is being played out with every character.
The Amazons are shown in a celebration in this film, as opposed to fighting a bloody battle. Was that a deliberate decision, to show them outside of war?
Yeah. In the first movie, the one thing I was -- and it killed me because we originally were going to do the Amazon Olympics, which is how in the lore historically Diana always got there, and it didn't quite fit in the storyline because it just didn't fit in, the way that we did it. I believed in much more for our story, but it was always something I wanted to do. But also that was their only war with man's world, and they're not going to fight each other. So this was this great way to say, ‘Oh, there's a lesson I really want to learn from the Amazons this time, and what did we miss last time? And how can we see something totally different?’ Them in the Olympics, I'm loving. It's so completely different. And the work we're doing with Cirque de Soleil and stuff, ‘How did they get to be those people who could have that battle on the beach?’ Well, this incredible practice, which when they go to an Olympic Games against each other -- they don't call it the Olympic Games -- but when they go to the games against each other, it's an entirely different kind of sporting event than we've ever seen.
You said you came up with the idea for this movie during the first film. As deep into production as you are now, have you thought of anything for another step in the franchise? Do you have a trilogy in mind?
Sadly, yes. Because I'm like, ‘Guys, I'm retiring after this movie and so -- goddamn it. And every time I think, yeah. I mean, I even think where the second movie came from was me as a fan of her and as a fan of superhero films, craving what I haven't gotten, which is, I wanted to see Wonder Woman out in the fucking world, not finding herself. Like, fucking Wonder Woman! And so there's one more thing I'm craving, which is true to her theme, which is true to everything that she stands for, that I'm like, ooh, there's one more chapter of Wonder Woman that we don't quite get. It doesn't quite make sense for this movie. It didn't for the last either.
Going back to Max Lord, there was a lot of kind of provocative inspiration photographs, including Donald Trump, who seems like a big influence on the character.
He’s one of them. I mean honestly, the funny thing is [Trump] is [an influence], but I'm not trying to make [a point]. We have the president in this movie and I've gone out of my way not to make it look like Ronald Reagan. I don't want to get political, it's not about political. Actually, a huge influence of this movie was also Madoff. And so what I was looking at was, the young Madoff story fascinates me, because I'm like, ‘How do you end up being Bernie Madoff?’ When you really start tracking that story, it all started out in a way that made sense, and he was paying it off, and then doing this and then paying it off again. And then, it's like you just become an evil dude when you don't even realize that it's happening.
So yes, Trump is definitely one of the people that we looked at, but it's any of those kind of 'mavericks of business success' that was big in the ‘80s. Who went on to be major players in our world in potentially questionable other ways. Yeah, I don't have an agenda to have a political message to send to the world, but I think that the world needs the same political message. Everybody needs to look at themselves right now and our politics, our belief system of excess.
Set photos of Wonder Woman caught you filming in Washington, D.C., with Diana running down a street. That spawned some theories that she was actually sitting in some type of craft... Is this where we're going to see the invisible jet, finally?
So if you look at that shot. No, it's that... It's... It's when she lifted her feet up, because it was... Anyway. It's funny. I'll tell you guys, the truth is she would take out half of that street if she was in a jet on the ground, she would kill basically everyone on the street. But that was the funny thing, and I was looking at it and I was like, 'Oh my God.’ So that is not what's happening there.
So the invisible jet is not in this movie?
Can't discuss. Yeah. Can't discuss anything that is or is not. People are so interested in it, I would not say yes or no either way. I've been asked that question so many times. I said the same thing in the first movie.
So how would you approach the invisible jet then if you ever did?
How would I? I don't know. I don't know. It would have to be done in a whole new way. I think that the invisible jet is one of those things that is so funny, because every single thing that any of these superheroes have is so silly in theory, and then when we talk about it, we talk about it as if nothing is going to be done to update it. So the only thing I'll say is what I've always said about the invisible jet: I'll do it when I can do it in a way that's super cool. It's got to be something different than her flying through the sky in an invisible jet. Which is fine on the page... Not great in modern [film].
