wonder-woman

Wonder Woman (2017) — The Patty Jenkins Film

The Gal Gadot / Patty Jenkins production that finally cracked the female-led superhero film, broke a decade of post-Catwoman pessimism, and became the highest-grossing live-action film ever directed by a woman at the time of its release.

Jon X

• 4 min read
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When Wonder Woman opened in June 2017, it carried a weight that no superhero film should sensibly have to bear. The character had been on screen, off and on, for forty-three years without a successful theatrical outing. Female-led superhero films had been failing critically and commercially for two decades — Catwoman (2004) and Elektra (2005) had become Hollywood's standard cautionary examples. The DC Extended Universe was eighteen months into a polarising run; Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad had been box-office hits but critical mixed bags. Patty Jenkins had directed exactly one prior feature (Monster, 2003) before this one.

The film opened to a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, a $103 million opening weekend, and a $821 million worldwide gross. It is widely considered the best DCEU film, and one of the better superhero origin films of any era.

This page covers production history, plot, reception, and legacy. For Gal Gadot's broader screen presence and how 2017 fits the wider Wonder Woman screen tradition, see Wonder Woman on screen.

Production

Wonder Woman had been in development at Warner Bros. since the 1990s. Multiple scripts and directors had cycled through — Joss Whedon famously wrote a draft in 2007 that never went into production. The character's first live-action big-screen appearance came in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Gal Gadot's brief but striking turn confirmed that she could carry a solo film.

Director Patty Jenkins replaced original director Michelle MacLaren in early 2015 over creative differences. The screenplay was credited to Allan Heinberg, with story credits to Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs. Filming took place from late 2015 through May 2016, primarily in the United Kingdom and Italy.

The production budget was approximately $149 million.

Cast

  • Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman
  • Chris Pine as Captain Steve Trevor
  • Robin Wright as General Antiope, Diana's aunt
  • Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Diana's mother
  • Danny Huston as General Erich Ludendorff
  • Elena Anaya as Doctor Maru ("Doctor Poison")
  • David Thewlis as Sir Patrick Morgan / Ares
  • Lucy Davis as Etta Candy
  • Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner, Eugene Brave Rock as Sameer, Charlie, and the Chief — Steve's commando team

Setting and plot

The most consequential creative decision in pre-production was moving the setting from the Second World War (William Moulton Marston's original 1941 premise) to the First. The reason was practical: Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) had already used the WWII setting for its origin story, and Warner Bros. wanted distinction. Moving to 1918 also gave Jenkins access to the more visually distinctive imagery of trench warfare, no-man's-land, and the gas-mask iconography of the Great War.

Plot in summary: Diana, raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, is shaken from her isolation when American pilot Steve Trevor crashes through the magical concealment in a stolen German plane. She follows him back to the world of men, convinced that the war he describes can only be the work of Ares, the Greek god of war. The film follows Diana and Steve from London to the Belgian front, where she discovers that the war is not the simple monster story she imagined.

The set-piece that defined the film's reception was Diana's solo crossing of no-man's-land — a single uninterrupted tracking shot of Wonder Woman walking from the Allied trench across the wasteland under fire, deflecting machine-gun fire with her bracelets. The sequence is widely cited as the most iconic Wonder Woman moment in any medium.

Reception

Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. Reviewers consistently praised Gadot's performance, Jenkins's direction, the no-man's-land sequence, and the film's tonal divergence from the earlier DCEU entries — Wonder Woman was warmer, more hopeful, more grounded in classical heroism than the dark grandeur of Man of Steel or Batman v Superman.

Box office performance was a major Hollywood story. Industry analysts had quietly predicted a softer opening, given the long history of female-led superhero films underperforming. The actual opening weekend — $103 million domestic — was the highest ever for a film directed by a woman at the time. The film legged out strongly, ultimately grossing over $821 million worldwide on a $149 million budget.

Cultural impact

The film is widely credited with breaking the post-Catwoman pessimism around female-led superhero films and catalysing a wave of subsequent productions: Captain Marvel (2019), Black Widow (2021), The Marvels (2023). It also re-established Wonder Woman as a viable theatrical lead after decades of stalled development, and made Gal Gadot — who was not a major star before Batman v Superman — into one of the most recognisable faces in the genre.

Jenkins received broad professional recognition. Her career trajectory shifted significantly; she was attached to several major projects in the years after, though as of 2024 she had not directed a third theatrical film since Wonder Woman 1984.

Legacy

Within the DCEU continuity, Wonder Woman led directly into Justice League (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). The 1984 sequel reunited Jenkins, Gadot, and Pine in a 1980s-set follow-up that received a substantially cooler critical reception — its eventual rating settled around 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, a steep drop from the original's 92%.

Plans for a third Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman film were public for several years. After the leadership change at DC Studios in 2022, the project was scrapped. Jenkins publicly disputed the studio's account of the cancellation. As of this writing, no further Gadot-led Wonder Woman film is in development; the role is expected to be recast for the Gunn/Safran reboot of the DC film universe.

Where it fits

For most viewers, Wonder Woman (2017) is now the canonical screen Wonder Woman — the version that comes to mind first, the version they would reference when explaining who the character is. Lynda Carter's 1975 series remains beloved by an older generation, and the animated portrayals (particularly Susan Eisenberg's DCAU run) have their own dedicated audience, but the Jenkins/Gadot film is, for better or worse, the public face of Wonder Woman in the late 2010s and 2020s.

Whether the next live-action interpretation can build on that, or has to start fresh against its weight, is the principal question facing the character on screen for the rest of this decade.

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