As the saying goes, “Out with the old and in with the new” – the DCEU is over. It’s in the past and Warner Bros. is ready to move on, but not everybody is. A player in the old creative regime doesn’t sound completely sold on giving James Gunn a chance.
Connie Nielsen, who is most recognizable these days for her turn as Hippolyta in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman duology and in both versions of Justice League, would like more of yesteryear’s vision for the Amazons and Princess Diana played by Gal Gadot.
Ideally for Nielsen, that means putting Wonder Woman 3 back into production. As she explained to Den of Geek, it makes no sense to her why the sequel, and effectively a trilogy, was axed. “I think it’s crazy. I mean, frankly, I don’t understand it,” she said.
“[Wonder Woman] made $800 million just in the movie theaters, and it has an enormous and passionate, passionate fan base. These are spectacular films, and there’s just no reason I can understand whatsoever for not investing in that. If I were a business person, I would say that’s money on the table. It’s right there. Plus every time we’ve done it, [it was] with budgets that were way smaller than any of the other DC budgets,” she continued.
Note that Nielsen is going by the first movie’s success. The second, Wonder Woman: 1984, completely missed the mark and caused a reevaluation of Jenkins and her abilities with tentpoles, notwithstanding the day-and-date streaming/theatrical release in North America. Still, the Danish star stands by what she said and tries to speak for the fans.
“It’s a pity,” Nielsen reiterated. “I really hope that they change their minds and that they realize this is crazy. This is a billion dollars that is lying on the table. Not claiming those fans and making them happy is something I just don’t really understand at all.”
Wonder Woman 3 was announced soon after WW84 was released despite the latter’s poor showing. A few short years later, Warner merged with Discovery, and CEO David Zaslav gave James Gunn and Peter Safran the keys to the DC kingdom.
They threw everything in development out in favor of a fully rebooted slate led by Superman but ushered in by Creature Commandos. The saga of the Amazons in the DCU begins with the Game of Thrones-inspired series Paradise Lost.