Does Warner Bros. See Any Value In Wonder Woman?
Everything - but only the boys. Wonder Woman gets a play date.
In an attempt to get people prep for the upcoming Justice League movie and familiarize the public with Justice League as a team, DC Comics/WB Consumers Department and Target Stores created exclusive Target store merchandise from beach toys, clothing, and cookout utensils, rocking chairs, kids’ costumes, and even Target exclusive action figures based on the New 52 comics Justice League team.
While I was excited at first to see this happen, when I went to the Target/Justice League website I noticed the Justice League logo with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Flash but no Wonder Woman. I scrolled through the website to the very end where I finally saw Wonder Woman. Most of the Wonder Woman merchandise is in pink and purple much to the disgust of most female fans. To be frank, maybe I am reading too much into this but I really don’t feel that Wonder Woman is getting her fair deal in this marketing for Justice League. That’s a shame since Wonder Woman is the most iconic super heroine ever. For over 70 years, whether you read the comics or watched the re-runs of the Wonder Woman live-action television show staring Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman is a strong female role model that women of all ages have looked up to. So why would Warner Bros/DC Comics not push that through this marketing campaign?
This is not to the first time that the Amazonian Princess has not been handled properly, given the attempt by David E. Kelly who tried to re imagine the character on NBC staring Adrienne Palicki in the title role. I hear the CW is developing a new television series based on the Amazonian princess called “Amazon,” and the script is being re-done by Aron Eli Coleite ( Heroes /Ultimate X-men).
Now if I had a nickel for every time I heard there should be an animated Wonder Woman series or live-action movie I would make Donald Trump jealous. For those who are asking for a Wonder Woman animated series I ask you this: where were you when the Wonder Woman animated movie came out back in 2009 with the title character voiced by Kerri Russell (Felicity) directed by Lauren Montgomery (story board artist for X-men Evolution)? If everybody crying out for a Wonder Woman animated series were to actually buy the Wonder Woman animated movie on DVD this would have shown WB/DC Comics that there is a market for an animated series based upon the Amazonian princess.
As for a live action movie, many fans suggest that Former MMA Champion Gina Carano, who starred in such movies as Haywire and Fast and Furious 6 should play Wonder Woman. There is even a fan page on facebook pushing for Gina Carano to don the title. Now for those who say or ask if Gina Carano can act or not, she can be taught how to act. The same was done with Jason David Frank, best known for his role in Power Rangers as Tommy Oliver (Green/White/Red Zeo/Red Turbo/Black Dino Ranger).
The plan WB/DC Comics has for the Justice League movie is to have a DC Cinematic Universe to rival Marvels Cinematic Universe. Should Man of Steel starring Henry Cavil as Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El be successful at the box office, the director, Zack Snyder, will direct the Justice League film with a script by David S. Goyer (script writer for the Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel). After the Justice League movie, each member of the Justice League will break off into their own movie. Something for all those Wonder Woman fans out there to think about. An announcement will be made from DC Comics/Warner Bros., probably at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, about the development of the Cinematic Universe for DC characters.
While Marvel studios has a creative team with a single vision for their Marvel Cinematic Universe that includes Kevin Feige who is the head of Marvel Studios and Avengers director, writer and current overseer of most of Marvel studios phase two Cinematic Universe Josh Whedon, DC Comics has their team who will shape the DC Comics Cinematic Universe with the Man of Steel sphere heading the Universe.
Chief creative officer of DC Comics Geof Johns, Zack Snyder and David Goyer are among the team to shape the DC Cinematic Universe. The DC Cinematic universe does have a shot to rival Marvel due to all of DC Comics characters in being in-house versus Marvel whose characters’ film rights are not all owned by Marvel studios. Sony owns Spider-man, Fox owns X-Men, almost anything mutant, and Fantastic Four, despite Marvel gaining some of their characters back due to unmet deadlines for rebooting such characters as Daredevil, whose film rights recently reverted to Marvel along with the Punisher, Blade and Ghost Rider.
DC Comics’ Cinematic Universe on the other hand will not have to deal with such red ape due to having all characters in-house, making it easier to create their cinematic universe and perhaps get even bigger than Marvel with their more iconic characters. Marvel had to develop their characters with single movies since unless you read comics no one knew who Iron Man was. People knew Captain America and Hulk but not their background stories.
DC Comics characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have been around for at least 70 years and they still look good for their age. Not a lot of character development is needed but rebooting the characters of Justice League for a new generation of audience is both understandable and necessary but tricky while staying true to the original content.
Wonder Woman for example needs to be modernized. As much as I love the original outfit, give this lady some pants. The outfit she had with pants and jacket was not that bad, but I have a feeling that Wonder Woman may wear that classic outfit but similar to her New 52 look, which is more familiar with audiences who are not comic book buffs.
One other preparation for the Justice League live action movie would be the DC Universe direct to DVD movies with 2-3 films released a year on DVD. I have a feeling that we are going to see a lot more Justice League animated movies as part of both WB/DC Comics marketing plan to get people prep for the Justice League live-action movie and DC Universe direct to DVD movie with the next films being Justice League Flash Point Paradox (due out July 30, 2013) and the tentatively titled Justice League War with previous Justice League Animated movies Justice League: New Frontier, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Justice League: Doom on the front of the Target/Justice League website.
Slowly but surely the popularity of the Justice League will rise among the non-comic book buffs but hopefully WB/DC Comics will push Wonder Woman more for a strong positive female role model for women of all ages generations old and new.
[Editor’s note: all images associated with this article are screencaps of Target’s website taken 6/13/13.]
I keep saying a Ridley Scott directed, Gladiator meets fish out of water highly mythical Wonder Woman would rocket her into popularity. She could be like the new Ripley.
I keep saying a Ridley Scott directed, Gladiator meets fish out of water highly mythical Wonder Woman would rocket her into popularity. She could be like the new Ripley.