Warner Bros. is frequently criticized for interfering in the creative process of directors helming DCEU movies, from Zack Snyder to David Ayer. During an interview with IGN, Patty Jenkins revealed that she was also on the receiving end of some unwanted studio notes that resulted in the much-derided third act of 2017’sWonder Woman.
“The original end of the first movie was also smaller, but the studio made me change it at the last minute. So that’s always been a little bit of a bummer that that’s the one thing people talk about, because I agreed. And I told the studio we didn’t have time to do it, but it was what it was. I ended up loving it, but that was not the original ending of the movie.”
At the end ofWonder Woman,Princess Dianaaka Wonder Woman comes face-to-face with the God of War Ares, who reveals he was the one who had caused the conflict between the two sides of World War 2. This sets up a climactic battle between Diana and Ares that suffers from some poor CGI, and also goes against the previously established theme of the film, that mankind’s cruelties are of their own making rather than due to any outside influence.
Fans had long suspected that Jenkins had been forced to make changes to the third act ofWonder Woman, and the filmmaker’s words confirm that suspicion. This time around, Jenkins states that she was able to create an ending forWonder Woman 1984that was much more in line with her own personal vision.
“This time around, you know what I loved about it? I love that [Wonder Woman 1984}] has both at the end. We had a visual effects, a big battle, which I just dug into and had such a blast executing, which I felt so satisfied with. But ultimately the end of the movie is much more pared down. That was really, really fun. No spoilers, there’s all kinds of stuff going on, but it was really fun to shape it differently.”
Reviews forWonder Woman 1984have been uniformly glowing, so it seems Jenkins' instincts with regards to the finale ended up paying off. There is also the fact that the filmmaker had much more clout this time around to get Warner to agree to her vision for the film and ignore any notes the studio might have had. Jenkins is so confident in the film that she previously shot down rumors of an extended cut ofWonder Woman 1984that she might want to release at a later date.
“No. I wouldn’t even want to [make an extended cut]. The reason why is because I grew up with the pacing of films being a little bit slower and I think that’s great. And when I show those movies to my son, there’s no part of him that thinks they’re too slow. When you watch Superman or you watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, nothing about it is too slow. We’ve gotten pretty quick moving in movies a lot now, but that doesn’t add up to emotion to me… The only difference that I end up having is I would like to take a little more time and have a little more air all over the place in scenes we really had anyway. And that’s it. So, if I aired my longer cut, it would be 15 minutes or 10 minutes longer and everybody would say, ‘I couldn’t tell the difference,’ because it would just be a little bit slower pace across the board so it’s not really worth it.”
Directed and co-written byPatty Jenkins,Wonder Woman 1984stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and Natasha Rothwell. The film arrives in theaters and HBO Max on December 25, while debuting theatrically in international markets starting on December 16. This news comes fromIGN.com.
