The third Wonder Woman film has been canned at Warner Bros., presumably under the orders of new DCEU head James Gunn. The trilogy that was downgraded to a duology had exactly one high point and one low point before its early conclusion. The larger direction of the franchise has changed in many ways in a very short time, and Wonder Woman 3's sudden demise is an interesting look into those changes.
Warner Bros. is, by all accounts, fully on fire from a business perspective. The studio is canceling finished projects and massive blockbusters for tax purposes, but James Gunn's new position at the helm might save the day. However, it seems clear that there will be some casualties in his heroic attempt to right the ship.
Since James Gunn took the role of Kevin Feige for DC's big-screen efforts, a lot of projects have come into focus or fallen from favor. As fits Gunn's general methods, smaller characters have gotten the lion's share of the new projects. Bigger names like Wonder Woman and Black Adam aren't enjoying the spotlight like they used to. This flies in the face of the original strategy of the franchise. In the early days, DC went straight for the throat with Man of Steel, followed it up with Batman v Superman, and carried on with Wonder Woman. That's the big three, laid on the table with the misplaced confidence of a terrible poker player. Financial success and critical derision followed in varying measures. Gunn's DCEU seems to have much less interest in using the heavy hitters of the DC Comics catalog, but why?
The first Wonder Woman was a mild critical success and a titanic commercial hit. It made almost as much money as Batman v. Superman and cost at least $100 million less to make. Fans enjoyed it too, it was seen as a moment of respite from Zack Snyder's grim reign over the entire DCEU. Batman is always the biggest weapon in DC's arsenal, but there are already a lot of other films about him to compete with. Wonder Woman isn't quite as big a name, but the 2017 film was the first full-fledged theatrical feature to star the character. The sequel, unfortunately, massively dropped the ball and left the brand in a state of disrepair. Wonder Woman 1984 failed at the box office and suffered much worse reviews than its predecessor. It's fair to assume that one good film and one bad film would result in a canceled third film, but 1984's disastrous reception isn't the only thing that led to that decision.
Rumor has it that Aquaman star Jason Momoa will be leaving the title role after the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Despite no longer portraying one of the biggest names in the franchise, he won't be bailing out of the entire DCEU. Instead, he's supposedly hanging up his trident to take on the role of Lobo in an upcoming film. Momoa has spoken obliquely about his "dream project" without mentioning its exact direction. It's entirely possible that the project he had in mind would see him become the edgy space bounty hunter that people have fan-cast him as for years. This would be a massive shift in the overall direction of the universe. Star power has been key to the DCEU strategy for years, but it's almost always put toward the big names. A lot of people thought Ben Affleck was a terrible choice for Batman, but he was certainly a huge star. Taking Momoa, one of the biggest stars who'll still return WB's calls, out of the role of a Justice League member and putting him into the role of an obscure 90s character is quite a statement.
The new mandate over at DC seems to be to play with the toys that no one else has ever touched. Bring out characters with smaller profiles and build them into huge icons on their own merit. This is what Gunn has done in his own work time and time again. No one cared about Rocket Raccoon until Gunn got his hands on him. No one had ever heard of Peacemaker before Gunn used him in The Suicide Squad and gave him his own spin-off. Maybe Gunn is just picking his own favorite characters and showering them with attention, but, this is his go-to skill set in the superhero world. The entire DCEU can take small characters that only a handful of people love, bring them to the main stage, and show everyone else what's so great about them.
Maybe the DCEU will come back to the founding members of the Justice League sometime down the road. Maybe this is only a phase and Gunn's DCEU is just trying to fix what has been broken. The current state of the franchise is such a mess that just about any big change would be welcome. Wonder Woman 3 won't see the light of day, but it would be absurd to think that any of these characters are going on the bench for long. We'll all just have to wait and see how the DCEU grows from here.
