The rumors about the DC Extended Universe being rebooted were greatly exaggerated, as proven by the first trailer for Wonder Woman 1984. The trailer for the Wonder Woman sequel was released at the Comic Con Experience (CCXP) 2019 in Brazil. The trailer shows off its two returning leads, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), along with new characters like Pedro Pascal's Maxwell Lord, and Kristen Wiig's Barbara Ann Minvera, who will eventually become the classic DC Comics villain Cheetah.
There have been rumors circulating for a while that the DCEU was being rebooted. Reportedly, DC Films wanted to "reset" their cinematic universe in an effort to bounce back from recent failures like Justice League. The rumors suggest that DC, supposedly unsatisfied with multiple aspects of previous movies, felt that the best way to save the DCEU was to have a fresh start with its characters. Recent successes like Aquaman and Shazam! have breathed new life into the DCEU, and they were thought to have provided the studio with a template by which to produce films in the future.
The DC reboot rumors were reinforced by changes that the studio is known to be making to properties currently in production. The Suicide Squad is already expected to be a soft reboot that ignores the events of the first movie (but still includes a sizable of portion its original cast). DC may be interested in recasting Superman and dropping Henry Cavill from the role, and DC's other flagship hero, Batman, is already undergoing a drastic overhaul from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Robert Pattison is taking the cape and cowl from Ben Affleck to become the next Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves' The Batman. Also, Pattinson's Batman will be surrounded by an all-new supporting cast. All things considered, it certainly looked like a reboot of sorts was in the cards for the DCEU.
Wonder Woman 1984 Is Clearly A Wonder Woman Sequel
What's currently happening with The Suicide Squad and The Batman does make it look like DC wants to move forward with its existing heroes, while at the same time ignoring events that took place in previous movies; however, this is clearly not the case with Wonder Woman 1984. The trailer confirms that the upcoming film is indeed a sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman. First of all, if Wonder Woman 1984 was intended to stand apart from Wonder Woman, it wouldn't include Steve Trevor, who was the film's male lead and Diana's love interest. At the end of the first film, Steve died sacrificing himself to save the world. The trailer shows that his return is a miraculous event, and likely is a major plot point in the upcoming film.
Making the Wonder Woman sequel a soft reboot wouldn't have been too difficult. Since it takes place in a totally different time and place, the only character that the movie needed to keep was Wonder Woman herself. This way, DC could have told a story about Wonder Woman that didn't connect to the previous film's narrative. If DC really wanted to press the "reset" button, this would have been the most obvious course of action.
Instead of moving on to a whole new chapter in Diana's life, Wonder Woman 1984 is diving right back into one of the most important elements of the first film, which was the romance between Diana and Steve Trevor. Somehow, Steve is resurrected a hundred years later, giving Diana a second chance to be with the person she loves. Clearly, the story of Wonder Woman 1984 is built around what happened in the first movie. Wonder Woman 1984 is serving as a continuation of Diana and Steve's love story, while also serving as a vehicle to introduce the villains Maxwell Lord and Cheetah.
The First Trailer Intentionally Avoids A Batman v Superman Retcon
In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman demonstrates a desire to stay out of the public eye. In the movie, Diana didn't want to become a publicly-known superhero like Batman or Superman. Instead, Diana was interested in remaining hidden from the rest of the world. When it was thought that the character would be wearing her costume in public for Wonder Woman 1984, it was believed by many that the film was retconning her approach to crime-fighting. However, the trailer reveals that this isn't the case.
A brief shot in the trailer shows how Wonder Woman 1984 is carefully avoiding retconning Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and is instead keeping in line with Wonder Woman's established goals. In the trailer, Wonder Woman disables the security cameras in a shopping mall to avoid being filmed. Just as she does in 2016, Diana is taking measures to be as discreet as possible, at least in her Wonder Woman persona (the trailer indicates Diana is some sort of celebrity or public figure). Likely, the film's writers (led by director and story-writer Patty Jenkins) were aware of the potential continuity concerns the project posed for Batman v Superman, and chose to address the concerns in the narrative. If the trailer is any indication, in 1984, Wonder Woman is not a publicly known crime-fighting superhero.
The Zack Snyder Aesthetic is Alive And Well
While the debate on whether or not the Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League should be released continues, the question of how much influence the director will have on the DCEU in the long run remains. As the director of Man of Steel, Zach Snyder is the original architect of the DCEU. His visual style is completely intertwined with the DCEU, particularly its biggest and earliest movies, which of course includes Batman v Superman. Since Batman v Superman and Justice League — both films that Zach Snyder's name is attached to — are two of the movies that the DCEU reportedly wants to leave behind, it would make sense that a reboot of the DCEU would involve ditching the Zach Snyder aesthetic, however there are layers of the Zach Snyder aesthetic in the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer. The speed ramping (a term which refers to the use of slow motion sequences) in Wonder Woman 1984 has a strong Zach Snyder feel to it, and the color grading is reminiscent of his style as well. From the looks of things, DC doesn't have their finger anywhere near the "reset" button after all.
