Warner Bros. is not going ahead with a third Wonder Woman movie from director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot, according to a new report. Multiple sources told the Hollywood Reporter that the project “is not moving forward and is considered dead in its current incarnation.”
The move comes as director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran, recently appointed as co-chairs and co-CEOs of the new DC Studios division, are putting the finishing touches on their plan to revitalize and reorganize DC’s presence in movies and TV. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the pair are due to present their vision to their boss, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, next week. They apparently told Jenkins personally that her film did not fit their new plans.
The cancelation of Wonder Woman 3 is the strongest indication yet that Gunn and Safran want to make a clean break with the last 10 years of DC films, particularly the “Snyderverse” cast put together by director Zack Snyder for the Justice League family of movies.
It also throws into doubt the return of Henry Cavill as Superman, as trumpeted by his post-credits scene in October’s Black Adam. As recently as that, a sequel to Snyder and Cavill’s Man of Steel was in active development according to the Hollywood Reporter’s sources, with director Andy Muschietti (It and the forthcoming Flash movie) proposing a return to the optimistic, colorful style of Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman.
But it now seems that might not be part of Gunn and Safran’s plan, and the studio is said to be considering whether a cameo Cavill filmed should be included in The Flash, scheduled for release in June 2023. Cavill’s cause won’t have been helped by Black Adam’s lackluster box office performance; star Dwayne Johnson claimed to have lobbied hard to bring Cavill back, but it seems his play to be a power-broker in the new DC universe has run out of steam, and a Black Adam sequel looks unlikely.
As it stands, the final DC movie of the current era is set to be Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, set for release in December 2023. Oddly, it’s rumored that while Jason Momoa’s portrayal of Arthur Curry will be culled alongside Gadot and Cavill’s Wonder Woman and Superman, the actor is being lined up to join Gunn and Safran’s new cast in a different role — that of alien bounty hunter Lobo, an antihero character very much in line with Gunn’s irreverent sensibilities.
Director Matt Reeves’ planned sequel to The Batman with Robert Pattinson, and the linked pocket universe of Gotham-set TV shows, are said to be unaffected by Gunn and Safran’s clean slate.
Wonder Woman 3’s cancelation continues a run of bad luck for Jenkins. Earlier this year, her Star Wars Rogue Squadron movie was removed from Disney’s schedule after delays. The first Wonder Woman was a big hit for Warner Bros., but its sequel Wonder Woman 1984 struggled at the box office during the COVID-19 pandemic, and faced a tough reception from critics and fans.
