For all intents and purposes, the DC Comics shared cinematic universe began in earnest on July 20th, 2013. The Brothers Warner announced to a packed Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con that their next superhero film would be one seeing a face-off between the two most popular characters in the history of the genre. While it was an announcement that set a shockwave across the world that Michael Shannon's General Zod would be proud of, it was the only official announcement for that weekend for live-action properties from the WB/DC tag team. An announcement of a live-action TV show for The Flash followed just a couple weeks later. WB/DC decided that the small screen would be the best medium for The Scarlet Speedster aka Barry Allen despite many fans' disappointment in the lack of a silver screen presence. The show would see the life of day thanks in a big way to Arrow, WB/DC's most recent hit superhero TV show on the CW network. While the jury is still out on Barry Allen's first appearance in this new shared live-action DC Universe, it seems as though WB/DC are finally making measurable progress to actually capitalizing on their intellectual property. The next big hint of the things to come by way of superhero films or TV shows came on
Saturday, October 5th. Kevin Tsujihara, WB's new CEO, made some interesting comments about the potential of a future Wonder Woman live-action franchise. "We need to get Wonder Woman on the big screen or TV." That's about as straightforward yet ambiguous as you can get. Tsujihara also admitted that the lack of current superhero properties the studio has produced in recent years has been a "missed opportunity." Countless outlets around the interwebs caught onto these comments and disseminated them to fans the world over. It's nice to have an acknowledgement from WB's top brass that they've dropped the ball in expanding their cinematic superhero properties outside of Batman and Superman. Sure, some could say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but that's the equivalent of buying a brand new Ferrari with only two wheels. Sure the car is still worth a lot of money but it's nothing more than the most expensive paperweight in the neighborhood. Regardless, the admission of failure was slightly refreshing to many fans that have been yearning for more cinematic content. Ultimately, the comment Tsujihara made about Wonder Woman is the one that caught everyone's attention. As someone who has been a long supporter of Wonder Woman finally coming to the big screen, this quote gave me a slight glimmer of hope. The only reason the hope I had amounted to nothing more than slight was because of the "or TV" clarifier at the end of his quote. Some fans may be perfectly comfortable with a Wonder Woman TV show that is hopefully good but this fan is not one of them.
Wonder Woman is the most popular female superhero in the history of the genre. Yes, she had a short time in TV back in the late 70's and so did The Flash back in 1990 but they were limited by technology and the popularity of the genre at the time. In the late 70's and 80's Batman and Superman were the cinematic representations of the superhero genre from WB/DC. So far in the 00's and 10's, not much has changed. Batman is more popular than ever, Superman was just given his first cinematic reboot, and Wonder Woman has nothing more to show for herself than a thankfully failed David E. Kelly failed TV show pilot. History has a tendency of repeating itself, doesn't it? The overall diversity among the superhero film genre has been an absolute joke. There have been no superhero films that have had a character of a different race or gender in the titular role other than white males. While white males make up the majority of superheroes and villains, they have overpopulated the cinematic universes of DC and Marvel. Both studios have acknowledged at times that the diversity of their properties is a priority; there have been no officially announced projects from either company that have come to fruition. DC Comics President Diane Nelson
recently made comments similar to Tsujihara in that she referred to WB needing to make Wonder Woman a "priority" despite their belief of her being a "tricky" character to showcase in cinematic form. While seeing less popular characters like Thor come to a successful cinematic fruition while embracing all of the fantastical elements of the characters' origin, the "tricky" defense is starting to lose its impact on me. Marvel is also taking a huge risk on a property that mainly only diehard Marvel fans knew of with Guardians of the Galaxy. A film that contains a talking tree and raccoon is a more viable cinematic option to certain film executives in Hollywood than the most popular female superhero in history. I understand these films are huge financial investments for studios. Every time a superhero film is green lit, studios are committing a few hundred million dollars between production and marketing. While superhero films are starting to become billion dollar franchises on a semi-regular basis but every new film has significant financial risk. But doesn't every film? With the popularity of the superhero film genre at an all-time high, the financial risk defense is starting to lose its impact on me. Comic books and the superheroes within them have remained popular for several decades for a multitude of reasons. But one of the most important reasons is that they give the reader a relatable fantasy. Characters are often put in very human situations despite most of them having abilities that no human ever will. Their stories of struggle, the longing for acceptance, the pain of loss, and the joy of triumph are all stories and situations that any reader can relate to. Our imaginations are supercharged as we daydream about the ability to fly or wield the Lasso of Truth as we overcome adversity and defeat the forces of evil. They give us an escape, they give us hope. These stories are brought to near life when experienced in the cinema.
In our ever-increasing technological age that occupies nearly every available moment of our attention span, the desire to have visual stories that captivate us and give us a small break from our fast-paced lives, grows with each passing text message and tweet. We want stories to captivate us, we want stories to believe in. Selfishly, I want a Wonder Woman film I can take my 11 year old daughter to so she can see with her own eyes that gender has nothing to do with potential. Would it be nice to "at least" have a good Wonder Woman TV show? No. There are so many TV shows that come and go without anyone noticing. So few shows stick around long enough to make a lasting impact. Let's be honest, how many great dramas like Breaking Bad have there been and how many will there be? That's a pretty small list. For a character as popular throughout the history of the genre, the small screen is simply not the right medium befitting of the greatest female superhero. It's time for a Wonder Woman film. It's time for WB/DC to show the world that the superhero film genre is not geared only towards 18-24 year old men. For all intents and purposes, the DC Comics shared cinematic universe began in earnest on July 20th, 2013. But until further notice, it's only for guys. Click "next" below to read 5 Actresses & Directors Who Would Be Great...