No lasso of truth needed: “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins is candidly speaking out about her distaste for Joss Whedon’s “Justice League.”
Ahead of the release of the much anticipated superhero sequel, Jenkins reflected on how previous directors have brought the Princess of Themyscira to the big screen.
After “Wonder Woman” broke box office records and opened to near universal critical acclaim in 2017, the iconic character played by Gal Gadot appeared in “Justice League” later that year. The polarizing film was heavily overhauled by Whedon, who took over for original director Zack Snyder after a family tragedy, leaving critics and moviegoers alike largely dissatisfied with the final result.
In Jenkins’ eyes, Whedon’s theatrical cut “contradicted” her take on Wonder Woman, as all of the films in the DC cinematic universe are meant to be somewhat interconnected regardless of the individual director’s vision.
“I think that all of us DC directors tossed that out just as much as the fans did. But also, I felt that that version contradicted my first movie in many ways, and this current movie, which I was already in production on,” Jenkins revealed on the “ReelBlend” podcast on Wednesday. “So then, what are you going to do? I was like … You would have to play ball in both directions in order for that to work.”
Jenkins seemed to contrast the relationships she had with Whedon and Snyder, noting that she was “very supportive” collaborating with the latter, as the two directors established certain continuity threads, like not changing the character’s signature costume.
“I think that ‘Justice League’ was kind of an outlier. They were trying to turn one thing into, kind of, another,” she continued. “And so then it becomes, ‘I don’t recognize half of these characters. I’m not sure what’s going on.’”
Jenkins added it was “hard” to see how Wonder Woman was depicted in “Justice League,” given how vastly Whedon’s approach differed from her own.
Whedon’s troubled production has made headlines in recent months over actor Ray Fisher’s claims about the director’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew, which he described as “abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable.”
Since the film hit theaters, fans have been clamoring for Snyder to release his original version of the film — dubbed the “Snyder Cut” — which has since found a home at HBO Max, where it will be divided into six TV-style installments.
As for Jenkins’ new film, after months of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, “Wonder Woman 1984” will simultaneously debut on HBO Max and in theaters on Christmas Day. It will be the first of 17 Warner Bros. films to follow the same release model, which has faced significant backlash from directors like Christopher Nolan and various movie studios in recent days.