10 Things Everyone Should Know About Wonder Woman

8) Several Attempts To Adapt Her For Film And TV Have Failed – Except In Animation

Getting a live-action Wonder Woman on screen has, for many years, seemed like an inexplicably insurmountable task. She is perhaps most famous for the relatively brief but popular TV series, starring Lynda Carter, that aired on ABC and CBS from 1975 – 1979. Since the cancellation of that show, Wonder Woman has only ever appeared in animation – including Super Friends, Justice League, and 2009’s feature length Wonder Woman that went straight to DVD. She also appeared in The LEGO Movie. In terms of live-action, however, many attempts to bring her to the screen have either stalled, failed or been shelved by studios in favour of male-led projects.

In early 2001, rumours swirled around Silver Pictures that a Wonder Woman movie was in development. Joss Whedon was associated with the project as a writer from 2005 – 2007, but eventually abandoned ship due to “creative differences.” Wonder Woman rumours resurfaced in 2008 – but the film was shelved in favour of an ultimately ill-fated Justice League movie (in which she would have appeared as a supporting character, instead of leading her own flick).

In 2011, Warner Bros Television announced plans to make a Wonder Woman TV pilot, written by David E. Kelley and starring Adrianne Palicki. It was rejected by every major network except NBC, who cancelled the project after that initial episode. The rejection was unsurprising, given the fact that David E. Kelley’s rendering of Wonder Woman was simplistic at best – reducing her to a one-dimensional character wearing a costume that looked cheap, and could easily have been mistaken as something from bad porn.

The CW – home of Smallville and Arrow – began developing Amazon in 2012. Intended as an origin series for the character of Wonder Woman, it was shelved in favour of the series The Flash. This disappointment was the latest in a thirty five year pattern of a live-action Wonder Woman being postponed, delayed, and passed over in favour of lesser, male characters. The Flash, for example – while being a fabulous character – was killed off from the source material in 1985, and was absent for over 20 years, as opposed to Wonder Woman, who has remained in publication almost constantly for over 70.