New Wonder Woman 1984 Footage Is Extremely Revealing
Diana of Themyscira isn't afraid to speak truth to power... or, failing that, to just kick power's ass.
WarnerMedia unveiled new footage from the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984 at their HBO Max presentation this week, and it features Diana (Gal Gadot) engaged in a brawl in an unlikely place: inside the White House.
The promotion machine for the sequel to the 2017 smash hit Wonder Woman is finally starting to kick into gear, and while it doesn't look like the new footage is going to be released online, we have a detailed breakdown thanks to the folks at IGN.
The footage heavily features Chris Pine's Steve Trevor, whom you may remember appeared to be quite dead at the conclusion of the first film. It's unclear how he'll return, especially considering the roughly seven-decade time jump between the two movies; Diana may be a virtually ageless quasi-goddess, but when it comes to Trevor, the filmmakers will have some pretty heavy narrative lifting to do in explaining his apparent resurrection and failure to age. Perhaps they'll steal a page from the classic '70s and '80s Wonder Woman television series — when it jumped time periods from the '40s to the '70s, the presence of Trevor, portrayed by the same actor (Lyle Waggoner), was hand-waved with the explanation that '70s Trevor was actually the original guy's son... who looked identical to his father, right down to the haircut. Sure, why not?
At any rate, the new footage opens with a shot of Trevor and Diana strolling along by the Washington Monument, with Diana wearing the type of flowing, white dress that one might expect to see on Themyscira, but not necessarily in Washington, D.C. "I can almost see it, like a beautiful dream," her voiceover intones, as she caresses Steve's face. Is this a dream? Her attire would seem to suggest it, and her mournful narration might have had us thinking that Trevor is actually dead, if not for the next scene.
In it, Trevor and Diana are under attack from gun-wielding assailants in the halls of the White House, and it certainly seems like no dream. Diana is wearing that crazy new armor that was teased in a promotional one-sheet back in June, and she has her hands full protecting Trevor from incoming gunfire while taking down baddies. The clip briefly moves to slow motion as Diana snatches away an attacker's gun and deftly unloads it, then she brings her lasso into play, roping guys in and pulling them towards her so she can deliver finishing blows in a Scorpion-like maneuver. The clip ends as Diana uses her lasso to deflect a bolt of energy from an unseen opponent.
The footage reveals that Diana will be facing down some powerful enemies, both in terms of political power and... well, freaky energy bolts. Unfortunately, it doesn't clue us in as to the deal with Trevor, so we'll just go ahead and guess that he somehow survived his plane blowing up at altitude, then went on to invent the most amazing anti-wrinkle cream the world has ever seen.
Is there a trailer for Wonder Woman 1984?
So far, fans at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 and this week's WarnerMedia presentation are the only ones who have gotten to see actual footage from the movie, as no trailer has yet been released. However, thanks to director Patty Jenkins spilling the beans, we now know when that will happen: on December 8, at CCXP (that's Comic-Con Experience in São Paulo, Brazil).
The flick's panel will close out the event, which will be live-streamed via its official Twitter page. Although it hasn't been officially confirmed, it's assumed that the CCXP spot will drop online shortly thereafter; fans have been waiting a long time, and principal photography on the film wrapped about a year ago, so we can probably expect a pretty beefy first trailer.
In the meantime, however, we do have some intriguing stills from Wonder Woman 1984 which highlight the movie's cast and its (apparently expertly realized) period setting. Here's Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), who joins the cast as the villainous businessman Maxwell Lord. In the comics, Lord is a turncoat who first assisted and sponsored the Justice League before ultimately betraying them; he also has mind-control powers, so we'll see if that comes into play in the movie.
Warner Bros./DC Films
Here we have Pine's Trevor, wandering around a very '80s-looking mall. We must say, with all of the big hair and funky attire on display here, the poor guy looks just a little bit out of place. He also looks like he knows it.
Warner Bros./DC Films
This is a shot of Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva, who becomes one of Wondy's most formidable nemeses, the supervillain known as Cheetah. In DC lore, Cheetah is the avatar of a god on Earth, able to easily go toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful metahumans in existence and possessed of claws that can literally slash anything to ribbons... even the skin of opponents with superhuman durability.
Warner Bros./DC Films
Here's a picture of Diana examining a bank of monitors which drives home the period the film is set in. Aside from the fact that we're looking at a bunch of old-school cathode ray tubes here, several of them are displaying such unmistakable '80s signifiers as J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) from Dallas, and Christie Brinkley in a famous scene from National Lampoon's Vacation.
Warner Bros./DC Films
Finally, here's a shot of Diana in an unidentified location; everything looks rather dreamy, however, and she's wearing that flowing white dress we mentioned earlier.
Warner Bros./DC Films
Hopefully, a bit of the mystery surrounding the plot of Wonder Woman 1984 will be cleared up when that trailer drops next month. The first film's director Patty Jenkins also helmed this installment, working from a script she co-wrote with Dave Callaham (Zombieland: Double Tap, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and comics legend Geoff Johns. In addition to those previously mentioned, the cast includes Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright, reprising their roles as Hippolyta and Antiope, respectively; joining Pascal and Wiig as newcomers to the festivities are Gabriella Wilde (Endless Love), Ravi Patel (Long Shot), and Natasha Rothwell (Insecure). The flick hits the big screen on June 5, 2020.