As the world prepares to see Diana Prince/Wonder Woman on the big screen in the epic superhero story, Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice, Entertainment Weekly released the first image from the upcoming standalone film, Wonder Woman, earlier today.
Directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) will be an origin story illustrating the transformation of a young Princess Diana into the greatest female warrior of all time.
She will need some help getting there, though. Preparing her for a world of men are three regal women: Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyta (Gladiator’s Connie Nielsen), and her two military aunts – General Antiope (Robin Wright) and Antiope’s lieutenant, Menalippe (Force Majeure’s Lisa Loven Kongsli).
This trio of immortals is responsible for both raising and training Diana — the only child on this estrogen heavy isle — but they don’t always agree. Hippolyta, a revolutionary leader, longs to shelter her beloved daughter from the outside world, but Antiope, the Amazon responsible for Diana’s training, wants to prepare her. “She is the only child they raised together,” says Jenkins, calling from outside London, where she is deep into the film’s production. “And their love for her manifests in a different way for each of them.”
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Wonder Woman‘s story will take place on Themyscira, a hidden island where Amazon women of Greek myth have thrived for centuries, living in harmony and free to self-govern away from the gaze of man. It’s also, of course, the birthplace of this Amazonian warrior, who after years of false starts, is finally a movie star.
To create Themyscira, Jenkins and her team used exotic islands off the coasts of Italy and southern China to enhance the otherworldliness of scenes filmed on Italy’s Amalfi coast. Still, designing a fantastical place proved challenging. Every decision about it, she says, came back to a central question: “How would I want to live that’s badass?”
With a much-heralded introduction in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is now a cornerstone in Warner Bros.’ DC Comics multiverse, with a crucial role in the first Justice League movie (out November 2017), and the center of her own long-awaited film.
Wonder Woman is slated to debut on June 23, 2017.