Patty Jenkins is best known in comic book movie circles for directing the first solo Wonder Woman movie, which became a critical and commercial success at a time when movies about superheroines were far from the norm. In a recent interview promoting her upcoming film Wonder Woman 1984, Jenkins talked about her appreciation for how different each movie in the DCEU is from others, from Joker to Birds of Prey.
“I love that about it. To me, that’s what superhero movies – period – always were. I think the exception to that was that Marvel had such success doing a shared universe. But that certainly shouldn’t be the status quo. I think you should look at comic books. There’s this huge variety of comic books, and their look and tone and world are radically different.”
“And they don’t always inevitably join together. Sometimes they do, and that’s really fun, and that’s that thing. But a lot of times, they have their own run. I’m psyched that DC – and frankly, Marvel’s actually doing it a little bit more now, too, with some of the tone of Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Widow and Doctor Strange – they feel very different in tone.”
“But I love that about DC, and I’ve always thought that that’s a wonderful thing about DC – they were all so different.”
The tug of wat between the MCU and DCEU has grown with each passing year. Just like comic book fans hold endless discussions about the relative merits of characters from rival companies, comic book movie fans frequently argue over which comics cinematic universe has more to offer.
The modern comics book movie boom can be said to have properly begun with Marvel’s Spider-Man and X-Men movies with Tobey Maguire and Hugh Jackman. But the seminal moment for such films is widely considered to be DC Comics’s The Dark Knight, which made a killing at the box office and netted huge critical acclaim, proving comic book films can be serious works of art as well.
Then came the success of the MCU, which DC under Warner Bros. tried to follow with their own cinematic universe with Zack Synder. Now, the studio seems to have given up on the concept of a shared universe, and is rumored to be concentrating on telling strong, standalone stories, or giving each superhero their own separate franchise.
This strategy of Warner Bros. of letting each franchise follow its own tone and style is what Jenkins is showing appreciation for. Interestingly, the filmmaker was at one point attached to direct Thor: The Dark World, before she dropped out because of problems she had with the script. Jenkins then jumped ship to DC and found great success adapting Wonder Woman for the big screen.
At the end of the day, audiences want to watch good movies, regardless of their genre, their style, or whether or not they’re part of a shared universe, and that is the part upon which Jenkins is aiming to deliver with Wonder Woman 1984. This news comes from ComicBookMovie.com.