Keri Russell Cast As Wonder Woman

After all the time we’ve spent over the years reporting on and obsessing over Wonder Woman casting rumors, it looks like someone has finally landed the part. It’s Keri Russell.

Much as I love Russell, she doesn’t exactly have the… er… physique to properly pull off an Amazonian. Lucky for her (and for us), in this case it doesn’t matter. You’ll never see her on camera. TV Guide reports that she’s been hired to provide Wonder Woman’s voice in a new direct-to-DVD Wonder Woman animated feature from Warner Brothers.

This announcement comes at a somewhat interesting time for the whole superhero genre at the WB. Warners has already scrapped a lot of their plans for theatrical solo movies for superheroes like Wonder Woman. They’ve opted instead to pin their theatrical hopes on a Justice League team-up movie, which would bring big superhero characters, including Wonder Woman, in as part of one big, action-packed film. But now even that project looks like it’s on the verge of being terminated, leaving the future of characters like Wonder Woman, entirely on direct-to-dvd projets like this. I guess what I’m saying here is that if you were hoping to see Wonder Woman wield her golden lasso, Keri Russell’s animated take on the character may well end up being your only way to do it.

The film is currently slated for a late 2008, early 2009 DVD release. It’s all part of the new WB push for animated superhero movies on DVD. Some of you may remember Superman: Doomsday, which they released straight-to-DVD earlier this year. It was such a success, that’s it’s prompted a whole string of these things. Direct-to-dvd animated movies for characters like Batman are already planned.

Warners has always had a lot of success turning DC’s superheroes into animated characters though. While Marvel characters have outperformed DC characters at the box office, Marvel has never had the animated success that DC’s characters have. The 90s animated versions of Superman and Batman for instance, are often regarded as the definitive takes on the characters, and the straight-to-video films which resulted from them were always big sellers. The fact that they’re now able to get a “name” like Russell giving voice to a marquee character is a testament to just how popular animated superhero movies continue to be.

Hey Warner Brothers! Take a hint! Once you scrap those plans for the live-action, theatrical JLA movie, maybe you should consider spending all that money on a animated version instead. It kind of makes sense.