UPDATE: Jenkins has taken to social media to clarify her comments, with the director posting the following tweet (original story follows)…
Versions of this article seems to be everywhere and not true. There was no "war" with warner bros. over ww. I'm talking about 10 years of discussions with 10 different execs through them. And whole beard thing was about other projects at other studios.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) January 6, 2021
Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, says that WB was not interested in her script or ideas for the first film.
Patty Jenkins made a massive splash with Wonder Woman in 2017 and not only is the sequel now available in Wonder Woman 1984, but she is also reuniting with Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman 3 and also has a Star Wars film lined up in Rogue Squadron.
But it wasn’t always this good for Jenkins as even when she was directing Wonder Woman, studio WB didn’t want to use her script. Speaking to Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast (via The Playlist), Jenkins said:
“They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision. And my ideas? They didn’t even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view. So that was definitely happening, even when I first joined Wonder Woman it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, ok, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off, that’s not what— I’m a Wonder Woman fan, that’s not what we’re looking for. Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view.”
SEE ALSO: Patty Jenkins reveals that Warner Bros. wanted her to cut Wonder Woman 1984 opening sequence
Jenkins is listed as co-writer of the screenplay for Wonder Woman 1984 so it seems like the success of the first film encouraged WB to trust their director a little bit more. It will be interesting to see how much creative control Jenkins has with Rogue Squadron for Disney, especially considering it’s a story she is incredibly passionate about telling.
Wonder Woman 1984 reunites Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins with stars Gal Gadot (Diana Prince), Chris Pine (Steve Trevor), Connie Nielsen (Queen Hippolyta), Robin Wright (General Antiope) and new additions Kristen Wiig (Ghostbusters) as Barbara Ann Minerva/Cheetah and Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones) as Maxwell Lord.
