5 Reasons Why DC Needs A Wonder Woman Movie

 

I’m going to just come right out and say it: If the new Wonder Woman costume makes a movie any more likely, I’m all in favor of it. As DC Entertainment begins to work on their movie slate, here are 5 reasons why a WW movie should be one of their top priorities.

She’s One Of The Most Famous Superheroes In The World
We’ve seen Superman and Batman get their own movies and, as great as Green Lantern and the Flash may be, WW has them both beat by a long way when it comes to brand recognition. If DCE is really out to win hearts and minds, ignoring their third-most-well-known character doesn’t seem to be the easy way to go about it. It doesn’t even matter if the reason she’s so well known is Lynda Carter, people obsessed with the bondage imagery of the character or those who want to see if she’s going to wear that jacket on the big screen – If mainstream audiences can get over their Adam West fetish and buy into Tim Burton and/or Christopher Nolan’s dark versions of Batman, they’re ready to be lured into a new version of Paradise Island’s favorite daughter.

She’s A Great Character
Ignoring the familiar iconic appeal of the character, Wonder Woman offers all manner of material that could make movie-worthy storylines – A warrior princess coming to civilization to preach peace? The daughter of gods being toyed with by those deities while making her way in a world that no longer believes in them? A Princess raised in a female-only society falling in love with a mortal man? These are insanely cinematic story ideas. If done well – which is to say, embraced with something approaching passion and not camp – how could a Wonder Woman movie fail? After all…

…It Could Be A Genre Mash-Up Like None Other
Superheroes + Gods + Epic Adventure. Make sure that enough of the movie happens outside of civilization as we know it, add “3D” in there somewhere, and you’ve got Clash of The Titans meets Superman without even breaking a sweat. Who wouldn’t want to go see that?

No-One Has Managed A Good Female-Led Superhero Movie Yet
In fact, most have seemed to try and avoid the idea since… what? My Super Ex-Girlfriend? Supergirl? It’s part of the genre that’s been entirely lacking in this recent resurgence of superhero movies. Yes, I know that there’s an assumption that female-led action movies are less successful than their male counterparts – Something that I’ll be interested to see challenged by Angelina Jolie’s Salt later this summer – and the same is true in superhero comics, but still: Isn’t it time that someone tried to challenge that assumption? If DC went ahead with a Wonder Woman movie, it’d allow them to lead in the race with Marvel by doing something that their opposition, so far, seems scared by.

Think Of The Free Publicity
If Wonder Woman can get such PR by changing her outfit – or, years ago, cutting her hair, back when Walt Simonson was writing the book – imagine what the celebrity press would do with rumors of casting the role… especially if, unlike the Spider-Man race that seems to be going on, actresses aggressively campaigned for it. Imagine how eager people would be to see the movie version of the costume, as well. With the addition of “hot girl + potentially skimpy outfit” math, a WW movie would – for better or worse – find itself being presold to audiences long before anyone at DCE or Warners would have to think about the official ad campaign.

I know, I know; people have tried for a long time to make a Wonder Woman movie happen, with even Joss Whedon taking a swing at the script. But with the character demonstrating her popularity with mainstream headlines for something as minor as a costume change, and DC pushing forward with new movie projects, surely someone over at DC Entertainment must realize that now is the time to make this happen. If we don’t get Wonder Woman before Green Arrow, then something has gone very, very wrong. I hope you’re listening, Geoff Johns.