By Charles Webb
The long and the short of it is Wonder Woman will be in 2015's "Batman vs. Superman." Or she won't. And for the time being, the studio behind the film is better off not saying anything one way or the other.
Without providing a firm confirmation or denial, Warner Bros. president of creative development and worldwide production Greg Silverman hinted at the studio's vision for a cinematic version of the Amazonian princess (as well as other heroes of the DCU).
Responding to Variety during their Entertainment and Tech Summit, Silverman offered this when asked about the possibility of the character making her way into "Superman vs. Batman" (or her own standalone movie):
“We are taking it all very seriously and are trying to do a plan that’s respectful to those characters and maximizes the stories as best they can,” Silverman said, dodging the question. “So everything that has been speculated are things that we’ve thought about.”
While this feels like the usual corporate shuck and jive away from a direct question (and it is a deft one at that), it touches on a couple of problems with speculating about who--or what--will be in Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" followup. Between the wildly mixed response to "Man of Steel," the very vocal online reaction to Ben Affleck's casting, and a shooting script that might be in flux, imagine a scenario where an exec teases Wonder Woman in the sequel and we don't get to see Wonder Woman in the sequel for some reason.
Previous comments from WB execs about the lack of viability of a woman-centric superhero movie, false starts on a live-action series based on Wonder Woman, and the lack of female leads in the big, tentpole superhero movies in general, the last thing you want to do is hold out (potentially) hope to fans about what will likely amount to a cameo (because who doubts "Superman vs. Batman" won't be crowded).
It also speaks to a studio keeping their cards close to the vest in terms of how they plan on building out the DC cinematic universe. For years, George Miller's "Justice League" would have introduced Wonder Woman and the rest of the DC heavy hitters to the big screen in parallel with the Nolan-verse "Dark Knight" films. That project fell through along with attempts to bring Wonder Woman to the small screen under "Ally McBeal" creator David Kelly.
We're all assuming that "Batman vs. Superman" would serve as a springboard for a new series of Batfleck Bat-films, so a post-credits (or in-movie) tease of Wonder Woman doesn't seem completely out of the question. Or the long-in-development "The Flash" movie? Or a reboot of "Green Lantern?"
I'll close with another positive (non) statement from Silverman about making use of DC's stable of characters on the big screen: “We have been doing a lot of thinking for years about how to best use all those characters and we love them.”
Do you want to see Wonder Woman in "Batman vs. Superman?" Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on Twitter!
