Wonder Woman crossing the No Man's Land between trenches is an absolutely epic moment in her film, and it's been one of the most talked about scenes of the summer movie season. Apparently, however, not everybody was on board with the scene when the movie was being filmed. Director Patty Jenkins says that early reports that Warner Bros. was against the scene are not actually true. Instead, it was members of the film's actual crew who, while filming the scene, didn't understand its purpose. According to Jenkins...
It's funny, I feel badly about this cause it's been reported that Warner Bros. was against it, which it was not Warner Bros., it was my own people in England. It was our own crew at points, who were like, 'Why are you doing this scene? She's not even fighting anything,' So Warner Bros. was not unsupportive of the No Man's Land scene. It was much more in-process that everybody was like, 'What's this scene for? There's no one to fight. We've already seen her block a bullet in the alley and then she's going to go in and save this church tower, why do you need this other scene?'
Brief spoilers for Wonder Woman. In Wonder Woman, Diana and Steve Trevor arrive on the front lines of World War I and Diana is warned to stay down in the trench, as the space between the two lines is a No Man's Land where people who wander through almost certainly die. Since Diana has made the trip specifically to get involved in this fight, she doesn't hesitate to leave the trench and we watch her deflect the enemy bullets as she moves with purpose to the other side of the fight.
The issue, apparently, was that for the majority of the scene in question, there is no "bad guy" being fought. Until Wonder Woman finds herself pinned down by machine gun fire on the other side, we never see a German soldier. We just see the bullets they're firing at her. Patty Jenkins told fellow director Richard Donner this lack of a direct antagonist was the reason the crew didn't understand the scene. However, Jenkins fought for the scene, trying to explain that the reason we never see an enemy is because the scene isn't about the enemy.
It's funny, because it makes you realize superheroes fight other people. And this was really just a scene about her. And so it was an interesting thing. I kept saying, it's about her---it's not about anybody else. It's only about her. Then, it was fine. The people who were questioning it, I said, 'Don't worry about it.' Just let me do it.
The lack of an enemy is sort of the point. The scene is about Diana truly becoming Wonder Woman. It's the first time we see her as the character we know and love and the audience has been waiting for it. The fact that we never see who she's fighting just allows us to focus on our hero. We're glad they just let her do it, because Wonder Woman would not be the same without it.
