In Paris, in the present day, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) receives a picture from Wayne Enterprises that shows herself and four men taken during World War I. She recalls her past as the daughter of Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nelson) on the island of Themyscira, where the Amazons live. They were created by the gods of Olympus to protect the human race. Hippolyta explains their origin to Diana—how Ares, the God of War, became jealous of humanity and sought to destroy it. When the other gods attempted to stop him, he killed them all but Zeus, who wounded Mars before dying himself. But he left the Amazons a weapon called the god-killer in case Ares returned. Hippolyta agrees to let Diana be trained by her sister Antiope (Robin Wright).
In 1918, Diana is a young woman. She rescues American pilot Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) when his plane crashes off the shore of the island. Soon it is invaded by German soldiers, looking to kill Steve. The Amazons wipe out the Germans, with heavy losses. Antiope sacrifices herself to save Diana. Steve is interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia and tells of a great war happening in the rest of the world. He is an Allied spy and has stolen a notebook from the German chemist Doctor Isabel Maru (Elena Anaya), who is improving mustard gas for General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston). Diana believes Ares responsible for the war, arms herself with the god-killer sword, the lasso, and her armor, and leaves Themyscira to stop him.
In London, Steve and Diana deliver Maru’s notebook to the Supreme War Council, where Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) is trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany. Diana translates the notes, revealing that the Germans intend to release the gas at the Western Front. Though ordered not to get involved, Steve recruits a Moroccan spy named Sameer (Said Taghmaoui), a shell-shocked Scottish marksman named Charlie (Ewen Bremneri), and a Blackfoot demi-god smuggler named Chief Napi (Eugene Brave Rock). The team reaches the Belgian front and Diana goes alone through No Man’s Land and liberates the village of Veld, all the Allied troops following her. They celebrate and take a picture as Diana and Steve fall in love.
They learn that a gala will be held nearby at the German High Command. Steve and Diana infiltrate the party separately. Steve aims to destroy the gas and Diana aims to kill Ludendorff, sure that he is Ares. Steve stops her to avoid jeopardizing his mission, but Ludendorff unleashes the gas on Veld, killing everyone. Diana pursues Ludendorff to a military base where they are loading the gas into a bomber headed for London. Diana kills Ludendorff but is puzzled when this does not stop the war.
Sir Patrick reveals himself as Ares. He tells Diana that he has coached the humans in warcraft, but it is their own desire to wage war because they are corrupt. Diana uses the god-killer sword, but he destroys it, telling Diana that, as the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, she is the god-killer. He wants her to help him destroy mankind, but she attacks him. Steve’s team destroys Maru’s lab. Steve Hijacks and pilots the plane with the poison gas aboard, takes it to a safe altitude and blows up the plane, killing himself. Ares tries to get Diana to turn her grief and rage toward killing Doctor Maru, but Steve has taught her that human beings are precious. She turns Ares’ lightning back on himself, killing him. The war ends. In the present day, she sends an e-mail to Bruce Wayne to thank him for the picture.
The film was directed by Patty Jenkins and written by Allen Heinberg from a story by him, Zack Snyder, and Elena Anaya. In the beginning, it was to be produced by Ivan Reitman. It languished in development Hell for a while, and directors including Joss Whedon came and went. It was inspired by 1940s comic-book stories by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston and stories by George Perez in the Eighties. It received positive reviews and was for a time the highest grossing film by a female director. It won the Hugo award for Best Picture and spawned a sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, with another coming soon.
Gal Gadot said that it was the character’s innocence coupled with her power that made her so interesting. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lucy Lawless, and believe it or not, Mariah Carey were considered for Wonder Woman. When Joss Whedon was in charge, he wanted Angelina Jolie. This was to be a prequel to Batman v. Superman, and casting Gal Gadot for that picture changed everything. She gained 17 pounds for the role and got a three-picture deal. The film’s look came from the paintings of John Singer Sargent. Publicity for the film was largely informed by that for the TV series Supergirl. It made a profit of 253 million dollars, 100 million of it on its first weekend, and it still has 93% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie was banned in Qatar, pulled from theaters in Algiers, and banned in Lebanon because Gal Gadot was in the Israeli Defense Forces. Wonder Woman, of course, was criticized for not being the kind of woman the critics concerned wanted her to be. Her costume was called too revealing, though it was just a modern version of the one she started with in the comics. She was criticized for not being as muscular as Superman like the version of her in the later comics and animations. You see, whether it’s body armor, swimsuits, or hijabs, women have to wear what they’re told to by perfect strangers. Screw that. Everybody should do what they want and the rest of us should shut up about it. A Wonder Woman looking like Sanchez from Aliens would be cool, but somehow I don’t think that’s Wonder Woman.
The character debuted in All Star Comics #8 (Dec. 2041--Jan. 1942). The daughter of Zeus and Queen Hippolyta was hidden away to protect her from Hera. She was tutored by Ares in the arts of war, but he considered her a failure because of her mercy and compassion. Themyscira was created by a group of Greek goddesses to give new life to women who had been killed by men. An origin story in 1959 detailed how Demeter had given Diana strength, Athena wisdom, Artemis the eyes of a hunter, Aphrodite beauty, Hestia control over the fire of truth, and Hermes the power of flight.
Wonder Woman was created and written by William Mouton Marston (born 9 May 1897), a psychologist who invented the lie detector with his wife Elizabeth Holloway. They lived together with their mutual lover Olive Byrne. They had four children, two by Elizabeth and two by Olive. It was Elizabeth’s idea to create a female superhero. Wonder Woman is believed to have been modeled on Olive, who wore heavy bronze bracelets. Marston saw great educational potential in comic books and was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006. He died at 54, in 1947. Elizabeth and Olive lived together until Olive’s death in 1990, aged 86, and Elizabeth died in 1997, aged 100.
When Gal Gadot got the role, she had given up on acting. She was not told what kind of movie it was that she was screen-testing for, and she was floored when she got the part of Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins had no experience handling a big-budget action movie, but she was well known for Monster, in which Charlize Theron played the first known female serial killer Aileen Wuornos, and Wonder Woman was a film she had wanted to do all her life. Lynda Carter was to appear in a cameo but couldn’t be available. Patty Jenkins insisted on Chris Pine’s nude scene as payback for all the naked women in movies, but in actual fact, he wore a speedo which was digitally removed.
The actor who plays Chief, Eugene Brave Rock, was told he could not change the name because of obligation to DC Comics, but he could name himself in dialogue. He called himself Napi, the Blackfoot creator being and trickster figure. The DC Picture flash-intro debuts in this movie, featuring a multitude of DC characters. Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero. That was Fletcher Harris’s character Fantomah, an ageless ancient Egyptian woman who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers. She appeared in Fiction House’s Jungle Comics #2 in February, 1940, but she never appeared again.