The recent mixed messaging about Gal Gadot’s involvement as Wonder Woman in the future of the DC Universe is just the latest example of a trend with the comic book movie franchise that is starting to feel like the kind of curse that never leaves a house, no matter what new tenants may take up residence.
As a fan of DC movies, I feel like I have been patiently waiting for the franchise to form into a cohesive cinematic universe on the same level as Marvel for a long time. However, the publicity outside of the films themselves has always been a source of secondhand embarrassment for me, because of the way actors and talent behind the lens seem to express contradictory attitudes compared to executives or other supposed Warner Bros. insiders in dueling news stories. The latest version of this is seemingly found in Gal Gadot’s claim that she sat down in a meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran to discuss them developing Wonder Woman 3 together.
Don’t get me wrong, if this news turns out to be genuine, I would be over the moon about it. But other reports have contradicted Gadot’s statements. Specifically, Variety reported that an anonymously cited insider to the situation said the threequel is actually not in development, that no “definitive discussion” had ever taken place, and that no promises were made. Despite this, Gadot’s most recent statements given to Flaunt magazine paint a completely different picture.
Is this the Black Adam publicity disaster all over again?
The reason this is so disappointing is that I thought these types of clashing news stories related to DC would go the way of the dinosaur once newly minted Co-CEOs of DC Studios, Gunn and Safran, took over. You see, a very similar case of clashing news stories just happened with the previous news cycle about DC — the buildup to, release of, and aftermath of Black Adam last year.
It seemed like every other month there was another news story about Henry Cavill either getting re-inducted back into DC or getting taken back out again. And this is not just media hype and rumor either. Cavill made a very brief but very official comeback as Superman, to the point that he even appeared in a post-credit scene for Black Adam. However, he had to make a redaction of the announcement on his own social media account when it was revealed that the newly appointed Gunn is not going to keep him as Superman going forward.
This back and forth regarding Cavill, which has been dragging out for years in the old DC Extended Universe in various ways, represented another one of those vicariously embarrassing moments for me as I watched this unfold as a fan. A similar type of back and forth seemed to occur with Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson, since he hinted in the press that there would be a Black Adam vs. Superman crossover at some point, only for that to go nowhere as well.
However, the back and forth with Cavill is not something I necessarily blamed Gunn for at the time. He had only just been minted as an executive at DC Studios, so surely it wasn’t his fault that these mixed messages were coming out. It was his job to reboot the franchise entirely, and though I’m a Cavill fan, I can understand if that does necessitate a recasting of Superman. In Gunn’s case, David Corenswet will be taking over the role of Clark Kent in 2025’s Superman: Legacy.
A fresh start in a haunted house
Now we are in another situation where a legacy DCEU star, Gadot, is making announcements about continuing as Wonder Woman, even as other news stories come out that cast doubt for the actor’s future. It is starting to feel like the superhero saga is akin to a haunted house. Gunn is the latest person to be given the keys, and if it were a logical world, he could make a fresh start in his new home. But it seems because of these frequent publicity disasters, reversals, and reaffirmations that have plagued DC’s past – such as the replacement of Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon for Justice League in 2017, only to release the restored version on HBO Max in 2021 – those same issues are now showing up like a poltergeist for Gunn’s tenure.
Don’t get me wrong, when you compare the many trials going on with the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now, there is still hope that the DCU can finally rise up to the occasion and submit something compelling and substantial for audiences to enjoy. Marvel is kind of floundering with the finale for Secret Invasion being one of the lowest-rated superhero adaptations of all-time. It also has problems with publicity, thanks to two of its stars being accused of abuse, Jonathan Majors and Tenoch Huerta. Sure, DC also had Ezra Miller – who gained a lot of controversy for their documented crime spree – but The Flash came and went, and flopped, so the prospect of a rebooted cinematic universe would seemingly make the Miller situation a problem in the rear-view and, once again, not really related to Gunn’s time as the creative spearhead of the studio.
However, in my opinion, these public contradictions between talent and executives are fairly unique to DC. At the very least, you certainly don’t see it as much with Marvel. And that negative publicity is frankly one of the biggest things that DC will have to shake off of its shoulders from an optics perspective if it ever hopes to succeed in the future. The Marvel equivalent amounts to Tom Holland spilling spoilers a little too often in interviews once in a while, which is a lot tamer by comparison.
Who knows, maybe the reports that are contradicting Gadot are actually in the wrong. After all, most of them cite anonymous sources, whereas her claims have her name and well-respected reputation attached to them. In the end, there’s definitely a chance this whole Wonder Woman 3 weirdness is just a giant misunderstood game of telephone. I personally really hope that’s the case, so that DC can feel like its hair is not constantly on fire for once, and we can welcome Gunn’s new vision for the franchise with an open mind.
