As the highly anticipated DC Comics and Warner Bros. film Wonder Woman is approaching, the world is getting ready to learn about Diana Prince’s origin story of how she became the iconic Amazon Princes hero that she is today.
Last week, Heroic Hollywood took part in an edit bay visit for the film in London, where we met Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, who is currently working with her team on finishing up the movie. In addition to learning new first act details and Diana’s backstory, we were fortunate to be shown new footage from the Wonder Woman film!
Before we go on to discuss what we learned from our visit, be aware of potential spoilers – you have officially been warned! Ready?
The first scene we saw features Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor on a boat that is taking them to London. We get to see a lot of great humor, heart, as well as the wonderful chemistry between the two actors. The scene takes place during the night and throughout it, Diana explains to Steve how she needs to be at the place where the battle is most intense, where she believes she’ll find Ares. Steve is a little confused and asks her if she means Ares as in the God of War. Diana explains how only an Amazonian can defeat Ares. Steve reminds her that this is a war unlike any other and that there isn’t much either of them can do about it other than trying to get to the men that they can, to which Diana says, “I’m the man who can!”. Diana insists that once she takes down Ares, the German army will be free of his influence and the world will be better because of it. Steve begins walking to the other side of the boat and recommends Diana to get some sleep, to which she asks if he isn’t planning on sleeping.
She asks if the average man doesn’t sleep, to which Steve says he does. He is just sleeping on the other side of the boat, which Diana finds odd as she wonders if he doesn’t sleep with women. He assures her that he does, but out of the confines of marriage, it’s not polite to assume that every woman is comfortable sleeping next to a man. He explains the concept of marriage of her, how two people get married and love each other till death. Diana then thinks that Steve can only sleep next to her if they are married and Steve hilariously agrees to lie next to her. Steve asks Diana if she has never met a man before or even her father to which Diana explains that she has no father. As seen briefly in the film’s trailer, Diana reveals to him that her mother made her out of clay and that Zeus brought her to life, to which Steve just simply says “well, that’s neat.” Steve goes on to explain that babies are made differently where he is from, which Diana is already aware of from her reading back at Themyscira.
We cut to the next scene where we meet Danny Huston’s character, General Erich Ludendorff. He isn’t someone you want to make angry, as we’re introduced to him shooting a captain that he was displeased with. He enters a lab where we meet Elena Anaya’s Doctor Maru, who warns him that they’re running out of time. Ludendorff says that he believes the doctor can and will succeed. Maru reveals to him that “something” came to her last night: a different type of gas for him that will restores his strength. He cracks open the capsule, with the gas inside of it flowing into him, rejuvenating him somehow.
We cut back to Diana, who wakes up and gets her first view of London, which she finds hideous. Steve says that it’s not for everybody. They get to London and Diana is, as you’d expect, fascinated and curious about this new world she has arrived in. Diana asks Steve about people that are holding hands and he explains that it’s what people do when they’re together, so she tries to hold his hand, but he says that they aren’t together in that way. Steve is focused on getting the important information that he stole from the Germans to the Allied Forces, but Diana wants to take off and find Ares. Steve makes a deal with her that if Diana comes with him first he will take her to wherever she wants to go, to which Diana agrees. When Diana tries to take her big coat off, which covers her uniform, Steve says that she can’t do that because, in Man’s World, it is considered as pretty much not wearing anything. They start heading further into the city as Steve wants to get Diana some more appropriate clothes as the scene cuts.
In a Q&A session after this first clip, Jenkins talked about the usage of Diana’s line, “I’m the man who can!”, at the meeting and the context of that comedic scene.
“It’s funny because we just replaced that line with a different reading [of “I’m the man who can!” in the first scene we saw], but I didn’t like it as much. The one that I liked is where she is completely oblivious at the meeting where she says “I’m the man who can!” which is what it sounded more like before and now she sounds a tiny bit strident. She has no feminist agenda at all. What made her have any kind of feminist storyline at all is just what you can’t avoid, like her total obliviousness.
That was something I cared a lot about, she could never be lecturing and she can never be scolding, she just walks out and goes “What’s going on? Why would this be happening?” which is a funnier way to look at it and talk about it. So we had fun with that part of it.”
The second big scene we got to watch featured Diana, Steve and his men arriving in No Man’s Land. From my humble perspective, this will without a doubt be one of the film’s most emotionally-charged scenes. When Diana arrives with the group, she sees an environment that is damaged with people in pain and dying. A woman begs for Diana’s help in German and she tells Steve that they have to do something and help these people. Steve explains that this battalion has been stuck here for almost a year without any success crossing to the other side, and that there is a reason this is called No Man’s Land.
Despite Steve’s orders, Diana puts on her tiara and walks onto the battlefield. This is when we see her in the iconic outfit for the first time. A soldier from the other side fires a bullet and she deflects it with one of her gauntlets. She starts running towards the enemies as they begin firing more shots at her. Steve and his men join her as the battle gets more intense. The heroes start infiltrating the other side of the field and are getting the upper hand before the scene cuts to black, with a logo fading in as the Wonder Woman theme song starts playing.
Earlier in the Q&A, Jenkins was asked if the arrival in London marks as the 1/3 of the Wonder Woman film, which had been discussed about during the story presentations before the clips were shown to us.
“Yeah it’s typical first act, second act, break. The first act is really her origin as it’s about where she came from and who she is. That’s what has been so super-fun about this. You look at who she goes on to be in the world, seeing this person from a child on to becoming an adult and a hero that she is in this film, watching their whole origin and storyline. “
Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Lucy Davis as Etta Candy, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Robin Wright as General Antiope, Lisa Loven Kongsli as Menalippe, Danny Huston as General Erich Ludendorff, David Thewlis as Sir Patrick Morgan, Elena Anaya as Doctor Maru, Ewen Bremner as Charlie, Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer and Eugene Brave Rock as the Chief.
Wonder Woman opens in theaters on June 2, 2017. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the movie and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
