Trivia / Wonder Woman (2017)

• Actor-Inspired Element: Eugene Brave Rock came up with Chief introducing himself as "Napi" to Diana (Napi is a demi-god in Blackfoot myths).
• Banned in China: The movie was banned in Lebanon. Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for decades, and the same group that succeeded this time tried to get Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice banned in 2016 (unsuccessfully). It was due to Gal Gadot's support to the Israeli Defense Forces, in which she once served. It was also banned in Tunisia for the same reason, however Malaysia averted this without problems, despite the country currently not maintaining formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
• Billing Displacement: Robin Wright is billed third behind The Heroine and the male lead. While her character Antiope is significant, she's nowhere near as important to the overall plot as the characters of David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, and even Connie Nielsen.
• Bonus Material: A new scene has been added in the home video release of the film. It takes place right after the armistice and sees Etta Candy (Lucy Davis) and Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui), Chief (Eugene Brave Rock) and Charlie (Ewen Bremner) gathering for a secret mission involving a Mother Box, thus teasing Justice League. The pub patron who got his ass handed to him by Diana in the film returns in that scene.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Many of the Amazon extras are normally martial artists, boxers, equestrians, or track-and-field athletes.
  • Gal Gadot herself is a former Israeli Defense Forces soldier.
  • Ann Wolfe (Artemis), arguably the greatest female boxer of all time, was brought on by Patty Jenkins because of her real-life expertise. In Jenkins' words, "Who else should be one of the greatest warrior Amazons, but the best female boxer in history?"
  • Chief is a Native American (Blackfoot, more precisely). Eugene Brave Rock got to speak some Blackfoot words in his role.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Subverted. When Patty Jenkins was greenlit as director for the film, she didn't have a say in the casting of Diana/Wonder Woman, but Zack Snyder did, since she first appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. A poster guy for Darkhorse Casting choices, he chose Gal Gadot, and this made Patty cry (and not of joy) at first when she only saw her as a model. Then Diana's major action scene in BvS happened, and Patty saw what Gal was capable of when filming Wonder Woman, and the rest is history. Patty and Gal even became friends and plan to collaborate on future projects such as a Cleopatra VII biopic.
  • That being said, during the promotional campaign for Wonder Woman 1984, Jenkins criticized the fact that Diana used a sword and mentioned how the action climax with Ares was the product of Executive Meddling, and she clearly preferred working on WW84, being more fond of what the 1970s Wonder Woman series and 1980s comics did with the character. Most people still think that the first movie is better, meanwhile.
• Deleted Scene:
  • While the Wonder Men are walking in Belgium to reach No Man's Land, Chief reveals the presence of underground mine under the road.
  • A deleted epilogue scene shows Etta Candy meeting with Sameer, Charlie and Chief, proposing another mission that involves recovering an incredibly old artifact from western Belgium and delivering it to the Americans. Etta eventually distributes the mission documents and one of them reveals an image of a Mother Box.
• Dueling Works: Came out one month before Spider-Man: Homecoming. Both Wonder Woman and Homecoming feature a top-tier iconic hero of their respective comics publisher (DC and Marvel). Said hero is super strong, good-hearted and (somewhat initially) naive. Both were introduced on film as part of an ensemble cast in 2016 in their respective universe with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for Wonder Woman and Captain America: Civil War for Spider-Man.
• Dyeing for Your Art: All the Amazons in the film went through the same training and stunt team that created the absurdly muscular Spartans in 300, in addition to learning things like horseback riding. Gal Gadot included.
• Early Draft Tie-In: Of a sort. The Ares figure from the tie-in line is based on his original concept art for the movie, which was originally going to be used before the producers decided on a different design. The Ares from both versions of Justice League looks closer to this concept art, that being said.
• Executive Meddling: In December 2020, Patty Jenkins revealed that the battle with Ares was studio-enforced.
• Fake Nationality:
  • The Amazons (they would be Greek if one goes by Classical Mythology) are played by an Israeli (Diana), a Dane (Hippolyta), two Americans (Antiope, Artemis), a Norwegian (Menalippe), a Ugandan-German (Acantha), a Dutchwoman (Venelia), a Sinagaporean (Orana), a Swede (Egeria) and a Canadian (Euboea).
  • American Danny Huston as German Erich Ludendorff.
• Follow the Leader:
  • In a way, this is the DCEU's equivalent of Captain America: The First Avenger — a Period Piece set during a World War, starring a crucial shield-wielding member of a major superhero team, who leads a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits against a fictional German military villain, made to set up a subsequent team-up film (The Avengers in Marvel's case and Justice League in DC's).
    • Ironically, the MCU itself would draw from all-too obvious influences in its alternate take on The First Avenger with the What If...? episode "What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?". A heroine with Super-Strength fighting in a World War, with combat moves quite similar to Diana's. And she even uses her shield to deflect a shell and uses a sword.
  • The mythical protagonist with Super-Strength from a Proud Warrior Race using a magical weapon and Fish out of Water experiences meanwhile invites comparison to Thor. Both also happen to be the fourth film of their respective movie universe.
  • It's been theorized that the success of contemporary female-led action films such as Snow White & the Huntsman, The Hunger Games and Divergent were what convinced Hollywood that the movie could be made, also avoiding the Girl-Show Ghetto in the process.
  • In a rather ironic twist, the Captain Marvel film getting Saved from Development Hell once and for all is a case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the DCEU, as it had no female-led solo film up to this point. Though both were racing to get their female-led films out first, Marvel conceded the race when it pushed Captain Marvel back in favor of Spider-Man: Homecoming. There was a period of some years where it was a hot topic to wonder whether DC or Marvel would claim to have the first female-led superhero movie in their respective Cinematic Universes, and which would claim the title of first successful female-led superhero movie. It was a pretty big feather-in-the-cap both companies were trying to lay claim to, before Marvel essentially gracefully bowed out.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Gal Gadot was pregnant with her second child during much of the film's reshoots. Which parts aren't stated, but Gadot reportedly still did most of her stunts.
• Playing Against Type: Although David Thewlis has played all kinds of characters in his career, he's easily best known to general (and especially American) audiences as the kind-hearted and heroic Remis Lupin. The producers of Wonder Woman were clearly counting on that to help obscure his villainous role here.
• Preview Piggybacking: Trailers for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women were (quite appropriately) attached to screenings of this film.
• Saved from Development Hell: One of those superhero movies always about to be made but never got anywhere. Joss Whedon was even set to make the film in the mid 00's. It took introducing her in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to get the film going.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: Ares is the villain, as revealed by action figures. Subverted as his toys' armor's look differs widely from that in the film and can easily be mistaken for the one comic-appearance toy used to pad out the wave as Marvel often does. Said toys were produced when his look was based on pre-production artworks; another design was used in the film eventually.
• Star-Making Role:
  • If it wasn't Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that made Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman a star, then this certainly was the film.
  • To a lesser degree, one for Eugene Brave Rock (The Chief), who hadn't expected the movie to be so successful at the time of casting.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Élodie Yung and Olga Kurylenko were the runner-ups for the role of Diana Prince before Gal Gadot was cast.
    • Jaimie Alexander was approached for the titular part as well before the casting of Gadot. However, Alexander turned it down due to contractual obligations to Marvel Studios as she portrays Lady Sif in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
    • Sarah Michelle Gellar, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Beckinsale, Christina Hendricks, Sandra Bullock, Jessica Biel, Rachel Bilson, Mischa Barton, Eva Green, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart and Cobie Smulders were also considered for Wonder Woman in various movie pitches over the years. Smulders eventually went on to voice the character in The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
  • Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Worthington and Liam Hemsworth were considered for the role of Steve Trevor before the casting of Chris Pine.
  • Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman were considered for the part of Queen Hippolyta before Connie Nielsen was cast. Kidman would later go on to play Queen Atlanna in Aquaman.
  • Michelle MacLaren was the first choice to direct the movie before Patty Jenkins was hired, but dropped out of the project due to Creative Differences.
    • Kathryn Bigelow, Catherine Hardwicke, Mimi Leder, Karyn Kusama, Julie Taymor and Tricia Brock were considered to direct the film as well before Jenkins was hired.
  • Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner were approached to cameo in the movie, but turned down the offer due to scheduling commitments to other projects. Carter would eventually appear in Wonder Woman 1984 as Asteria.
  • Michelle MacLaren reportedly wanted Diana to have a tiger sidekick/pet she could talk to. Besides inviting comparisons to He-Man and Battle-Cat, some comics fans noted that within the DC Universe it's Captain Marvel/Shazam who traditionally has a talking tiger buddy, namely Mr. Tawky Tawny.^note While Wonder Woman did actually interact with big cats in the comics (as seen in one Golden Age comic and one modern comic), these were lions rather than tigers (due to lions actually being formerly native to Greece at the time where the original Greek myths were written).
  • The movie was first greenlit to be an adaptation of the TV show rather than the comics. After the DC Extended Universe was announced, the movie was Saved from Development Hell to become part of it. Patty Jenkins was first commissioned to direct back in 2005 but had to step down due to her pregnancy.
  • The toys of Ares feature a drastically different look than what appears in the film proper, including a helmet made from an animal skull and the character's traditional shadowy face and Glowing Eyes of Doom. It was later confirmed that the figure was based on early concept art that ended up not being used in the final film.
  • There was debate among the creative team early on about whether or not Steve Trevor should be included, as the character has something of a mixed reputation.
  • Patty Jenkins really wanted to find a way to put the TV show's theme song into the movie at some point, but couldn't find a way to fit it in.
  • The now memorable No Man's Land scene was almost cut from the script on the executive's orders, but Jenkins objected and managed to shoot it.
  • In early 2021, Zack Snyder shared an early concept photo of the movie (which was also going to be the photo used in Batman v. Superman), the page's top photo. It shows Diana in 1854 during The Crimean War (the earliest conflict where photography was used) surrounded by warriors from all over the world (a Samurai, a Scottish soldier wearing a kilt, a Sikh, a Native American, an African and another man in the background). Diana is seen holding a spear and three decapitated heads, meaning the movie would have been very much Darker and Edgier and Diana would have met Steve Trevor much later, maybe even in another movie. The team and setting were changed to World War I when Patty Jenkins arrived on the project and Snyder went along with it, and considering her opinions in the lead-up to Wonder Woman 1984, she very much toned down Diana's warrior side.
• Word of God: Although not spelled out in the film, commentary by the actors confirms that when Chief identifies himself as Napi in Blackfoot, he actually does mean the Blackfoot demigod.
• Word of Saint Paul: Bleeding Cool came up with a theory early on that the character Sameer was a member of the Blackhawk squadron and speculated that he may be an adaptation of Andre-Blanc Dumont. The actor tweeted out the image that was created for the post suggesting that he agrees.
• You Look Familiar: Samantha Win played Car-Vex, one of the Kryptonian invaders in Man of Steel. She plays the Amazon Euboea in Wonder Woman and Justice League.

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