Although Diana Prince arguably stole the show in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, she still didn't really have enough screen time to properly develop as a character. Luckily we will get to see that process take place when Wonder Woman hits theaters next summer. It's a major moment for the superhero genre, and a stark departure from the hyper masculinity that has characterized these films in recent years. Bringing one of the most iconic female superheroes to life represents a major undertaking, and Gal Gadot thinks Warner Bros. made an incredibly effective decision by enlisting female director Patty Jenkins to take on the job. From what Gadot says, it sounds like this part of Wonder Woman's story is particularly suited to be directed by a female...
It's a story about a girl becoming a woman. I think only a woman, who has been a girl, can be able to tell the story in the right way.
The above quote comes from a recent interview with EW, in which Gal Gadot spoke at great length regarding the importance of Wonder Woman having a female director behind the camera. She also said:
All my life I've been working with male directors which I've really enjoyed. And I'm lucky in that I've worked with men who have a lot of respect for women. But working with a woman is a different experience. It feels like the communication is different. We talk about emotions. With Patty, it's a thing now, we communicate with our eyes. She doesn't need to say a thing. If I'm hurt, she feels the pain. It's a whole different connection that I have with her. She's also brilliant, she's bright, she's fierce, she's sharp. She knows exactly what she wants Wonder Woman to be.
In Gal Gadot's eyes, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is perfectly suited to adapt this particular DC heroine because she has an acute understanding of how Diana Prince should come to life on the silver screen. There are no communicative hurdles between Jenkins and Gadot, and both of them share a distinctly feminine outlook that allows them to respectfully take this particular iconic female hero from the page and bring her into the realm of live-action. After all, at its core this is a movie about a girl who matures into womanhood. Gadot doesn't disparage male filmmakers with her comments, but she seems to very much think that a woman's touch on the Wonder Woman movie helps in a very specific way.
This sort of thinking has become fairly commonplace when it comes to bringing iconic characters to the silver screen. Across the aisle at Marvel, Ryan Coogler recently expressed a similar sentiment when it comes to adapting T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) into his very own Black Panther movie. Coogler explained that any director can workout outside of a given cultural identity, but to have someone behind the camera who truly understands where a character comes from helps add a degree of "nuance" to an adaptation.
With Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins front and center, Diana Prince seems to be in the best possible hands to take center stage. We will know for sure once Wonder Woman debuts in theaters on June 2, 2017.
