The action-packed trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 has landed. As the title makes clear, it’s set in the era when shoulder pads and big hair were in vogue and greed was good.
Set between the original movie and her exploits alongside the Justice League, the preview features spectacular sights, such as Wonder Woman lassoing a lightning bolt. The pounding New Order soundtrack and shopping mall location will immediately put genre fans in mind of Atomic Blonde and Stranger Things.
Despite frosty Cold War connections, the movie looks colorful and fun. A poster image showed a new, armored costume for Wonder Woman, though her previous version is still front and center here.
Gal Gadot returns as the Amazonian evil-smasher, with Patty Jenkins back in the director’s chair. As for the story, Warner Bros have released the following: “Diana Prince comes into conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s and finds a formidable foe by the name of the Cheetah.”
Cheetah is the animalistic alter ego of Barbara Minerva, an archaeologist who is transformed into a fearsome adversary. She will be played by Kristen Wiig in a highly-anticipated role. Star Wars star Pedro Pascal also features as sleazy money grabber Maxwell Lord. Both Cheetah and Lord appear in DC Comics. The former battled Wonder Woman as early as her 6th issue in 1943. Lord made his debut in Justice League #1 (1987).
Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen appear from the first film, but all eyes will be on Chris Pine and his romantic hero Steve Trevor. Widely presumed gone, fans soon discovered that wasn’t the case through Wonder Woman 1984’s advance publicity. Gadot and Pine are sharing a fair amount of screen time, going by the trailer. Prince and Trevor were separated during the first world war, though how the screen hunk managed to get out of that one remains to be seen…!
Gadot found watching the finished product an emotional experience. “I forgot it was me…” she revealed on social media, “even though I shot the whole movie and I read the script a million times and we did it and filmed it for eight whole months… I called Patty crying. I had an even bigger reaction than I did for the first one.”
Talking of big reactions, Wonder Woman was a box office smash, taking over $800 million against a budget of around $150 million. Rotten Tomatoes lists it as the 4th Best Superhero Movie Of All Time. The character has been the talking point of DC’s Cinematic Universe, which struggled initially in contrast to rival Marvel.
Gadot’s Wonder Woman was introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which underperformed… by stratospheric Hollywood standards anyway! Neither that, or 2017 sequel Justice League, impressed critics. The latter became a box office bomb. However Jenkins’ style and Gadot’s star performance led to better fortunes for producers.
The Wonder Woman franchise has never been bigger. Recent release Bloodlines is an animated movie where Rosario Dawson voices the title character. Meanwhile adult drama Prof Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) detailed the creation of Diana Prince. William Moulton Marston (under the pen name Charles Moulton) brought her adventures to the page with artist H. G. Peter. In addition to being a writer, Marston was a psychologist and inventor. Among the projects he worked on was the lie detector.
Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins have had their names put on the map by the lasso-wielding heroine. Gadot will play pioneering actress, screen siren and inventor Hedy Lamarr in a forthcoming miniseries. On the big screen she’s appearing in Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile. Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Hercule Poirot, with Gadot acting in an ensemble cast, which includes Annette Bening, Armie Hammer and Jennifer Saunders.
Related Article: Wonder Woman Gal Gadot Set to Portray Actress-Inventor Hedy Lamarr
For now, audiences will be most anticipating Gadot’s latest appearance as DC’s famous female warrior. Wonder Woman 1984 is released on June 5th next year.