Wonder Woman Screenwriter Explains Diana's Changed Origin Story

Wonder Woman's upcoming movie will diverge slightly from her comic book origin story. Diana, as created in the comics by William Moulton Marston, joins Steve Trevor in trying to end World War II; however, in the film, she will be helping to put a stop to World War I.

Screenwriter Allan Heinberg said that he made the decision because of how relevant World War I is to where we are today. "We are in a very WWI world today with nationalism and how it would take very little to start a global conflict," he told Entertainment Weekly. "It's the first time we had an automated war. The machine gun was a new invention. Gas was used for the first time. New horrors were unleashed every day."

Director Patty Jenkins said that she was skeptical of changing the time period at first, but she quickly "saw the genius behind it." "World War I is the first time that civilization as we know it was finding its roots, but it's not something that we really know the history of," she said. "Even the way that it was unclear who was in the right of WWI is a really interesting parallel to this time. Then you take a god with a moral compass and a moral belief system, and you drop them into this world, there are questions about women's rights, about a mechanized war where you don't see who you are killing. It's such a cool time."

While another explanation for the choice could be to further differentiate the film from Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger, Heinberg and Jenkins' reasoning clearly translated well into the final product, which has received stellar reviews thus far. Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Etta Candy, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, and David Thewlis star in the film, which is due out on Friday; while we wait, prepare by reading up on the character's dark history.