7 Things We Learnt From The Second Wonder Woman Trailer

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice might not have been the critical darling that DC were hoping it would be, but one of its elements that viewers were eager to see more of is Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. She basically only had a glorified cameo in the movie, but her triumphant introduction in full armour during the battle against Doomsday was a true punch-the-air moment. After 75 years, the most iconic female superhero has finally made her way to the big screen. So, when the first trailer for her own solo movie was revealed at this summer's San Diego Comic-Con, we all let out a sigh of relief that it looked to be just as good as we hoped. Demonstrating the WWI-setting and its own distinct tone, Wonder Woman looked to be headed on the right track - despite the dubious rumours about issues behind the scenes. Ahead of its release in June, the second full-length trailer for the movie has now arrived and gives us a much better look at its content, style and feel. Thankfully, we can say that we're still totally on board with it. Will it be the hit that the DCEU needs? It's still too soon to tell, but for now, here are 7 interesting things we learnt from the new trailer. 7) There Will Be A Framing Device Unlike the original trailer, this one opens with a scene of Diana in the present day. We see her visiting the Louvre in Paris and looking at an old photo taken during World War I (the same one that Lex Luthor had in his possession in BvS), as she tells someone about her origin story. "I used to want to save the world," she says. "This beautiful place. But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness within." This heavily suggests that Wonder Woman will have a framing narrative of sorts, with the bulk of the period-set story told in flashback. This makes a lot of sense, seeing as we've already met Diana in the present. As such, the film probably won't be your standard origin story, instead working to fill in the blanks of the character's past. Her ominous dialogue also hints at the tragic reason that resulted in her retreating from Man’s World for a century before the events of BvS. Given the way she's tearing up at the photo, it looks likely the reason will involve a tragic fate for Steve Trevor (as played by Chris Pine). We’re also wondering just who Diana is talking to in these modern scenes. Seeing as she and Bruce are closely working together in Justice League, could Ben Affleck be turning up for a quick cameo? It would make sense – after his appearance in Suicide Squad, he seems to be the connective tissue of these movies now that Superman is temporarily out of action. 6) Diana Is A True Hero Something that many people rallied against in Man of Steel and BvS was the presentation of both Bats and Supes as flawed, troubled beings whose primary aim didn't really seem to be helping people but sorting out their own issues instead. This new Wonder Woman trailer, however, promises that Diana will be very different from those two, as shown in her pure motives for leaving Themyscira and fighting in the war. When Steve Trevor comes to the island and tells them about "the war to end all wars" and "weapons far deadlier than you could ever imagine," Diana is apparently horrified enough to say goodbye to her people and venture into Man's World (taking the mystical Sword of Athena with her). When her mother Hippolyta asks her why, she says she "cannot stand by while innocent lives are lost." It also seems that she's inspired to make this choice by the death of another Amazonian when soldiers come to the island and attack, introducing her to guns - which she is visibly appalled by. This true heroism is something we haven't really seen before in the DCEU, as even Superman stood by and let things happen for most of his life in Man of Steel. It’s great to see here though, even if we know that later on something so terrible will happen that Diana gives up on humanity for all those years. 5) The Cinematography Is Beautiful Up until now, the movies of the DC Extended Universe have all had a similar visual style, mainly consisting of washed-out colours depicting foreboding urban settings. Wonder Woman looks to be breath of fresh air in this respect, though. Not only have we left the dingy city and stepped back in time onto a beautiful paradise island, but the whole look of the movie is a lot more bold and colourful than what's come before. This is best exemplified in the trailer by the shots of Themyscira itself and the instantly iconic image of Wonder Woman's red, gold and blue uniform striding through No Man's Land. In a way, it feels like director Patty Jenkins is subtly calling back to the bright colours of the Golden Age of Comics, from which Wonder Woman first hailed. The movie also looks to be using some interesting camera techniques, like the slo-mo used when Diana watches a bullet whizzing past her. Funnily enough, it heavily resembles the moment in the Justice League trailer where The Flash looks at Bruce's batarang in the same way. This could become a recurring motif of these films, but we're assuming it's just a coincidence and Snyder and Jenkins thought of it independently as a cool way of showing the hero's fast reflexes. 4) She'll Have A Secret Identity The Marvel Cinematic Universe has famously never had any time for secret identities, but the DCEU by contrast looks to be embracing this classic superhero trope. After Supes and Bats dealt with everyday alter-egos in previous films, the trailer reveals that Wonder Woman will also be operating under a secret identity of sorts. We know this because when Steve meets his commanding officers with Diana, he lies that she's his secretary. This could be a one-off joke, but as we later see Diana following Steve around the city and trying on dresses with Steve's actual secretary, Etta Candy, it seems the film will devote at least some time to seeing Diana pretend to be a regular woman. Probably not very successfully, though. This also looks to be another instance of the movie harking back to the Golden Age, where Diana was infamously only allowed to be the secretary of the Justice League. 3) She Can Fly?! As we've only briefly seen her in action in the third act of BvS, there's still much we don't know about the DCEU's take on Wonder Woman. There've been many conflicting versions of her over the years (from a period where she was completely de-powered to points where she had the powers of a god), so it's hard to know right now just what Gal Gadot's character can and can't do. In one juicy scene from the trailer, however, it's seemingly revealed that she can fly. As one of the character's lesser-know abilities, we weren't sure whether this would be incorporated into the movie universe or not, but it does seem to be present here. Well, technically, she can glide along currents to make massive leaps rather than straight-up fly like Superman, but the effect is practically the same. Many of Wonder Woman's more familiar abilities are also demonstrated in the trailer - from a look at her glowing Lasso of Truth in action to a lot of footage of her bullet-deflecting bracelets coming in handy. The only thing that's currently missing in her Invisible Jet, but we probably shouldn't hold out too much hope for that. 2) We Still Don't Know Who the Villains Are Though these trailers have told us a lot about the approach the movie will take with the character and its tone, we still know surprisingly little about the actual story of Wonder Woman. Chiefly, it still hasn't been confirmed who the villain - or villains - of the film are. That said, we do get some hints about them in this second trailer. Danny Huston's as yet unnamed angry German officer is clearly either the sole bad guy or the face of a group of villains, as he's shown at various points in the trailer. At one stage, we see him ordering some scientists around as they work on what's presumably some extra-potent mustard gas to use on the battlefield. Alongside him, we also see glimpses of a woman with a cracked mask covering the bottom half of her face. Two of the most prevalent fan theories rolling around are that the woman is Doctor Poison, a facially-disfigured evil scientist from the comics, and that Huston is really Ares, the God of War, in disguise. In the case of the latter, we know from the previous trailer that Diana will be portrayed as the daughter of Zeus, so the film certainly has Greek mythology up for grabs. We also see him go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman in a couple of brief scenes in the new trailer, suggesting he has some sort of metahuman ability. Is he really Ares, or would it be more effective to have Diana face a very human evil? It could explain why she turned her back on humanity for so long. 1) Steve Trevor's Role Something that was slightly worrying about the first Wonder Woman trailer was the emphasis on Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, to extent that it sort of sidelined Gal Gadot. As charismatic an actor as Pine is, we don't want the movie to forget the real star of the show. Thankfully, the second trailer makes plain that this was just a tactic to hold back most of the Wonder Woman material until the new preview. It also makes clear that in no way is Trevor the hero of this film. Sure, he's still a brave military man, but he's basically the damsel in distress. This is best shown in the scene where Diana protects him from some hoodlums in an alleyway, using her bracelets to deflect the bullets. It's a moment that very much recalls a famous sequence in 1978's Superman, where Supes saves Lois Lane from a thief by subtly catching the bullets. This puts Pine in that Lois role as the love interest that the hero needs to protect. After many, many instances of women being reduced to those types of roles in superhero movies, it's refreshing to have things on the other foot for a change. We also later see Diana tenderly stroke Steve's face, which is a rare sign in these trailers that the pair will actually go down a romantic route. Fans of the character will of course already have known this, though, as Trevor has appeared as Diana's love interest from the beginning in the comics and in on-screen versions too, like the 1970s TV series.