Wonder Woman Director Had No Input On Justice League Version of Diana

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins says she had no input into or knowledge of Diana Prince’s (Gal Gadot) storyline in 2017’s Justice League. Director Zack Snyder’s mega team-up event brought together a huge array of DC superheroes and was meant to be the centerpiece of the DC Extended Universe. There were three films that led into Justice League, setting up its characters and their relationship to one another: 2013’s Man of Steel, 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and 2017’s Wonder Woman.

Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were both directed by Snyder; Wonder Woman was the only film that led into Justice League that Snyder didn’t direct. Even though Jenkins was at the helm, Snyder still co-wrote the story for Wonder Woman, making it easy for him to plot the character’s development and trajectory. But, apparently, Jenkins had considerably less insight into the overall plan for Diana and how she would eventually fit into Justice League.

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During an interview with Collider, Jenkins revealed a bit about her involvement in the DCEU beyond Wonder Woman. When asked if she had any input into how Wonder Woman fit into Justice League, Jenkins said:

“I did not have any input into how she fit into either version of Justice League. I was shooting Wonder Woman at the time that they started shooting Justice League so it was a very, very busy time. But no, I never had any input or even really knowledge about what was going to be going on in Justice League. Yes, I always have tried to kind of be respectful of knowing where she kind of ends up and keeping the same suit and all of those kinds of things, but I didn’t really know exactly what was going to happen there.”

Jenkins had to work with a lot of what was set up by Snyder without talking to him about specific plot points for Diana, which makes her success with Wonder Woman even more commendable. Snyder cast Gadot as Wonder Woman, approved her costume, and plotted her trajectory as a hero. Jenkins’ movie served as more of an origin story for Diana and it was set nearly a century before Snyder’s films, so there weren’t too many direct threads that needed to connect, but Diana’s personality and motivations needed to be consistent. Jenkins has said she only had a vague idea of where Diana ended up in Justice League when she was filming Wonder Woman, so Jenkins had to make sure her film could stand on its own while also setting up the right character beats for Snyder to build on.

Jenkins’ Wonder Woman was the first critical success for the DCEU but, even still, she wasn’t completely satisfied with how her film connected to Justice League, though it was no fault of her own—or Snyder’s. Snyder had to exit the project in the middle of filming, leaving Joss Whedon to pull together the final version of the film. And Whedon’s version of Justice League, Jenkins said, contradicted the way she set Diana up in Wonder Woman and turned her into a character she didn’t recognize. Fans didn’t connect with Whedon’s film, either, which led to a successful campaign to release a new version more in line with Snyder’s original vision.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League hits HBO Max in March 2021 and, even though he’s teased at least one new scene involving Wonder Woman, Jenkins still doesn’t know exactly what Snyder has in store for Diana. She hasn’t seen the Snyder Cut and isn’t sure if she’ll be able to before it’s released to the general public. Hopefully, however, it’ll line up a little better with the Diana Jenkins brought to life in Wonder Woman.

Next: Justice League: How Wonder Woman Was Different In The Snyder Cut

Source: Collider