The first trailer of the new film Wonder Woman 1984 was released on Sunday at Comic Con Experience (CCXP) in São Paulo, Brazil. This sequel to the 2017 film will see the return of director Patty Jenkins and of Gal Gadot as Diana Prince.
The trailer is slick, beautiful and full of action, intrigue and Easter eggs. The story line is based on time travel, 1980’s malls, consumerism and the surveillance state (as in Orwell’s 1984).
The film is scheduled for release in June 2020, so we will have 6 months to talk about it and shop for merchandise. Unless, you can time-travel.
Chris Pine returns as Steve Trevor, even though he had a fiery demise in the last film. The film features two villains — Cheetah, the human-cat hybrid, played by Kristen Wiig. She starts as a close friend of Diana’s, but in time, the two friends grow apart and ultimately face off against each other. The other villain is Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal, a businessman selling merchandise to a gullible public in return for control over their lives.
The music is by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. The trailer includes a remix of Blue Monday by the British rock band New Order, released in 1983.
Here is the trailer -
You will get a kick out of this action scene -
The trailer is getting rave reviews and accolades, from film superheroes no less. Here is Captain Marvel with the tweet that has won hearts in the twitterverse.
And here is ex Wonder Woman Lynda Carter -
Here are some tweets and links to articles with more info. Note that most of info. available is derived from the trailer and bits of info from CCXP.
From www.cinemablend.com/..., we discover that Wonder Woman won't carry any weapons in this film. Gal Gadot explains why -
Wonder Woman does not carry a weapon. We had an intention to let go of the sword, because there’s something very aggressive with a sword. If you have a sword, it means you need to use it. So we wanted to give that up. And we didn’t feel that the shield was necessary either. She’s a goddess, she can fight, she’s super strong, and she has the skills. So no, she has the gauntlets. She has the lasso. She has her tiara and that’s about it.
And yes, she swings with her lasso on bolts of lightening. Take that Thor and Captain Marvel!
The Cheetah is a supervillainess, an archenemy of Wonder Woman. She was created as an allegory of the folly of abnormal emotions such as jealousy, as well as to be another embodiment of what he called "less actively developed women" (emotionally misaligned) who needed emotional reform by a love leader (Wonder Woman). Cheetah originally appeared in Wonder Woman #6 in 1943. The images released so far show Wiig as a human, in a cheetah dress, but we will probably see her transformation into the feline form over the next few months.
Some insights and commentary from folks steeped in fandom -
Here is some more info about the film from an interview with Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins at CCXP -
The film team had a rousing reception at CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil.
Some posters -
Epilogue
Among the various superheroes and superhero movies, Wonder Woman to me stands out as someone unique and different, a superhero that embodies inner strength and passion, vulnerable yet determined, a goddess figure but steeped in humanity. The stories around Wonder Woman have more depth, more heart, the movies rely more on dialogue, characters and emotions, and less on CGI based fight scenes and grunts, typical of other superhero movies.
In these days of real-life female superheroes (Greta, Ivanovich, Fiona Hill, Cooper and Karlan), it seems very appropriate that a female super-heroine will rule the screen and rule our hearts.
I am definitely looking forward to this movie. How about you? What role has Wonder Woman and her various incarnations in books, TV and film played in your life? What are your memories and insights? Please share.