The titular heroes of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice may be getting most of the attention, but don’t forget that a certain Amazon princess will have an important role. Other than the casting of Gal Gadot and the official image of her released at San Diego Comic-Con, there hasn’t been much revealed about the cinematic Wonder Woman. Her look is obviously inspired by the New 52 (she’s rocking the lasso AND the sword), but will her background be altered in any way? It wouldn’t be the first time a comic book movie has dramatically changed a character’s origin story. Fortunately, it seems that Diana of Themyscira’s origin will closely follow her current comic book incarnation’s past.
While being interviewed at "The Hollywood Masters" series at the Loyola Marymount School of Film and TV, Batman V Superman producer Charles Roven stated that Wonder Woman would be a goddess in the film, specifically a demigod, and that her father is Zeus, the king of the Greek Gods. Wonder Woman’s origin has been redone many times since she was first created in 1940. Before DC’s New 52 relaunch, Diana was constructed from clay by Hippolyta (who wanted a daughter), and was brought to life by the Greek deities. In the New 52, however, she is the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus, and recently became the new God of War after killing Ares. It's quite the promotion.
At the beginning of this year, a rumor spread across the Internet like wildfire that the Amazons in the DC Cinematic Universe would be descendants of ancient Krytponians that crash landed on Earth centuries before. While this would make Superman and Wonder Woman more directly connected, it would also have been a slap on the face to the character. Wonder Woman’s origins are supposed to be mystical. She comes from an island inhabited only by women, and her foes are primarily magical or supernatural. There isn’t supposed to be a scientific reason for her existence. Despite Man of Steel giving off the vibe that this takes place in the "real world," with characters being introduced like Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Green Lantern, realism can’t play an important role anymore. These are beings with amazing powers, and to reduce these abilities to being simply scientific or connected to Krypton would be a waste. DC needs to embrace the mythology, and from what’s been announced so far, this won’t be an issue with their heroes.
How they’ll explore the Greek deities in future movies is unclear, although this is one of the pros of giving Wonder Woman her own movie...aside from her just being a great character in general. It’s also worth nothing that in the comics, Superman has a weakness to magic, making Wonder Woman one of the few beings who can truly harm Superman. If movie Superman has this weakness and ever goes rogue, Wonder Woman might be the only one who can take him down without kryptonite.
