Did you hear that? That massive sound over the weekend? That was the collective sigh of relief let out by female comic books fans, female film fans, and supporters of women in film in general when the “Wonder Woman” trailer finally premiered at San Diego Comic-Con.
It was as if every Wonder Woman fan came to together to shout to the heavens, “Fucking, finally.”
With Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” hitting theaters next June, we’re getting our first female-led comic book film since the massive, industry-consuming trend began dominating the studio system. That in and of itself is an abysmal fact, but we can only move forward. And it’s high time that a comic book movie shows that women can be the heroes of the story too. Audiences are ready (and they have been for a while now). Women’s stories are universal stories. And comic book movies starring, directed by, and created by women should become the norm just as much as male-dominated ones. And once “Wonder Woman” premieres, there’s no going back. No more, “Can women carry a film?” No more “do people want a woman superhero?” No more “Boys won’t watch it.” They can. They do. And they will.
As the trailer details, the origin story kicks off during World War I with Diana, Princess of Themyscira, rescuing a man, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), something she’s never seen before in her life. What follows are glorious shots of Wonder Woman riding her horse, swinging her sword, whipping her lasso, and generally kicking ass. Just watch as Wonder Woman emerges from a WWI trench wearing not the armor of a solder, but the armor of her own people, the Amazons, and stand her ground as technologically advanced artillery bombards her.
Oh, don’t think we’ve forgotten about Robin Wright flying through the air shooting arrows or leading a cavalry assault on the beach. The supporting cast of Wright and Connie Nielsen (“Gladiator”) could not be more perfect. (Don’t worry, we like you too, Chris Pine.)
But probably the best part of the trailer is when Diana asserts to Steve that, “What I do is not up to you,” without a hint of reluctance or consideration that what she does would be anything but up to herself.
During a celebratory 75th anniversary panel at Comic-Con this weekend, director Jenkins revealed that during her first meeting with Warner Bros. after making “Monster” she immediately expressed interest in Wonder Woman.
As TIME reports, Jenkins said, “There was a period of time where people were scared to make a female superhero movie, and a Wonder Woman movie in particular. There was an apologist attitude about how do we make her super hard and impressive? And I said, you have to make her universal. Why do white men get to be universal and everyone else has to be a smaller story? She is fierce. I’m not worried about that. She’s also vulnerable, loving, falls in love, which is what we’ve always done to Superman. So that’s the thing that I cared the most about. It’s a universal story.”
“Wonder Woman” hits theaters on June 2, 2017, and we cannot freaking wait.
