Production recently began on Wonder Woman 1984, and now Gal Gadot has released the first photo of Diana in costume.
Where the first Wonder Woman was set in the First World War, the sequel will jump forward in time to 1984. It will set the Amazonian goddess's adventures against the backdrop of the Cold War, with Chris Pine returning to the DCEU - even though his character, Steve Trevor, was actually killed off in the first film! The movie's main villain is Kristen Wiig's Cheetah, though it's not yet been revealed which version of Diana's feral foe will make her DCEU debut.
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Production officially began on June 13, and we've already seen some set photos. Now, though, star Gal Gadot has decided to give viewers their first official glimpse of Wonder Woman in her solo sequel.
The image doesn't exactly give away any of the plot, but frankly it doesn't need to; it just needs to promote the title character. Audiences fell in love with Gadot's portrayal of Wonder Woman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL's stunning composition giving Diana a theme tune of her own. 2017's solo Wonder Woman movie was one of the most popular entries in the DCEU to date, proving once and for all that a female superhero film could be both a critical and box office success. Nobody was surprised when Warner Bros. greenlit the sequel.
It will be fascinating to see how Diana deals with the Cold War. Wonder Woman ended on a gloriously triumphant note, with the titular hero restating her faith in humanity. No doubt that faith will have been shaken by the horrors of the Second World War, but we don't need to see that; the first film already explored the idea of Diana on a battlefield. A Cold War setting will continue that challenge, with Diana surely horrified at the threat of all-out nuclear war between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
As exciting as Wonder Woman 2 may be, Warner Bros. will need to tread a careful balance. In Batman V Superman, it was clear that neither the Dark Knight nor the Man of Steel had ever heard of Diana before; in fact, director Zack Snyder actually implied she'd retreated from the world for over a century, disillusioned by the events of the First World War. Patty Jenkins's film took a totally different approach, and is now continuing Diana's superhero career over the course of the century, but the fact remains that Diana needs to have become somewhat obscure by the DCEU's present-day.
The fact we're getting photos from the production right from the start is pretty exciting. It suggests production of Wonder Woman 1984 will be very open, with a constant flow of official photos for fans to analyze. The studio knows how popular Wonder Woman is, and (especially with other areas of the DCEU looking less certain) are determined to keep the character everyone loves in the spotlight.
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Source: Twitter