Why-No-Wonder-Woman-

Wonder Woman -­‐ p. 19
April 15 th , 2013
2014 sequel was announced before the first movie was even released. It
would appear that non-fictional cities do not hinder a superheroʼs success.
Another commonly cited obstacle is that Wonder Woman suffers from a
lack of notable villains, as she originally just battled the Nazis during World
War II. Yet, Captain America: The First Avenger, released in July of 2011,
was a period piece set in World War II, and the film was met with both
critical acclaim and box office success. Moreover, a villain does not need
to be famous in order to be successful, as Christopher Nolanʼs hugely
successful Batman trilogy proved in its first film Batman Begins. Instead of
choosing the most famous Batman antagonist, The Joker, Nolan decided
to use the lesser known Scarecrow. In the hands of talented actor Cillian
Murphy, this character rose far above his lack of recognition to become a
formidable villain who was downright evil. Batman Begins ultimately went
on to be a critical darling that grossed over $370 million at the worldwide
box office.
Finally, some have suggested that Hollywood simply canʼt understand the
character of Wonder Woman, a claim that is entirely without merit. If there
ever was a writer more capable of creating strong female characters, it is
Joss Whedon, and he devoted two years of his life to creating a Wonder
Woman script, only to eventually depart the project over the meekest of
industry excuses: creative differences.
This begs the question as to whether or not studio executives at Warner
Brothers truly are indifferent to the cause of getting Wonder Woman to the
big screen. Joel Silver, the producer in charge of developing the film for
nearly a decade, recently departed the project and has since remained
tight-lipped as to the cause of the delay. Sources claim studio executives
are simply uninterested in backing an action franchise fronted by a woman,
and people often point to the box office bombs of Catwoman and Elektra
as examples of the genreʼs failure. However, these excuses fail to point out
that these two films most likely bombed because they simply were badly
made movies, and in the case of Catwoman, bore little resemblance to the