Credit: DC / Warner BrosZack Snyder had some great ideas, but this…
It’s not necessarily a bad thing when franchises come up with plot elements that unite different characters, plots, or scenarios. That’s one of the reasons why The Mandalorian has been so popular, as it has united all three eras of the Skywalker Saga. It’s no wonder then that director Zack Snyder had some ideas of how to do it in the former DC Extended Universe, but this one was a bit out there…
Uniting storylines with the comic book genre on film can either be extremely difficult or made even easier by the canon already established. Both Marvel and DC have the benefit of decades of stories told about their characters, with many different interconnecting plotlines. Filmmakers over the years have really been able to pick and choose which ones they like, which ones they don’t, and which ones they’re going to use.
When it comes to iconic characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, however, there are things that filmmakers just can’t mess with. Batman/Bruce Wayne should always be an orphan in Gotham City, dedicated to fighting crime, Superman should be a Kryptonian, raised on earth, with the red, blue, and yellow suit, and Wonder Woman needs to be an Amazon, with her lasso of truth, and a similarly patriotic color scheme.
Of course, there are other things, other character traits, and stories that just can’t be touched, and maybe that’s the reason why James Gunn and Peter Safran decided not to continue with Snyder’s vision for DC. The Direct reported on comments made by the director at SnyderCon 2023 in which he elaborated on his plan to completely change Wonder Woman’s origin and character:
“[We considered how] Zeus could possibly be a Kryptonian. So, that Wonder Woman’s powers…you can sort of see where that’s going. Because the whole thing of whether or not magic or gods… There’s a version of where you’re like, ‘That’s cool, I guess.’ But then there’s also more the scientific aspect. You have the pathology built up of like, ‘Where do gods come from? What is that about?’ We had played around with that quite a bit.”
In what would have been a wildly different take on Wonder Woman, Snyder revealed that had things continued the way they were going, the character could well have been a distant cousin to Superman in the DC Extended Universe. This would have been a radical change in any DC Movie to the established canon and, as many fans pointed out, wouldn’t really make sense given her superpowers and how they differ from every other Kryptonian.
Related: Zack Snyder Jumps to Defense of Defunct DCEU Plotline
Obviously, this didn’t come about, and instead, the DC Universe is getting a facelift, with many characters still up in the air. At least fans will be able to rely on the classic trio of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman in Gunn and Safran’s new DC Studios, and likely in a very familiar format. Familiar, yes, but hopefully with a new take that won’t be the same old retread that fans have been used to since the very early days.
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