Patty Jenkins had a lot more creative control over Wonder Woman 1984, as evidenced by the fact that she co-wrote the script alongside Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham. When it came to the production of the first film, however, she was more subject to the studio’s obligations due to the fact that her only other feature film at the time was 2003 Monster (a critically acclaimed but much smaller project).
Appearing at Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, the writer-director revealed that the great CGI climax with the militant deity Ares (played by Harry PotterDavid Thewlis) at the end of the first Wonder Woman was made at the request of Warner Bros.
“That was the only thing the studio forced me to do – it was not meant to be. It was meant to be, like, that he never becomes Ares. The purpose of the film is that you get there, for the big monster, and he just stands there looking at you and saying, ‘I didn’t do anything’. “Jenkins said.” And then the studio kept saying, ‘Okay, let’s let you do this. And then we’ll see.’ And then I could feel it going up. And then, at the last minute, they said, “You know what? We want Ares to show up.” And I said, “God damn it, we don’t have enough time to do this now.” [They said] ‘No, you have to do this.’ “
Unfortunately, the heavy end of VFX ended up being one of the few things the public did not like about the film, which currently holds the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any DCEU film produced to date. And until the release of James Wan’s Aquaman in 2018, it was the second highest grossing DCEU film of all time.
“It pisses me off now because sometimes I read the reviews and the only thing we unanimously received some shit about was the end of pyrotechnics,” continued Jenkins. “They’re like, ‘DC always does that.’ And the truth is that it was them. The studio forced me to do this. And I wasn’t sure. But it’s alright. “The director went on to say that she” ended up really being at peace with what we did, but it was done very quickly … As soon as you get the note, you hug it – it’s happening anyway. I ended up super proud of it. He just didn’t have enough time to look as good as the effects needed to look. I loved all the ideas of everything I did, but it was a little rushed. “
If things had gone her way, Diana (played by Gal Gadot) would have fought an Ares without armor. “They would have a big fight because he is a god, he can do anything. She can’t hurt him, but … he didn’t need the armor.”
The YouTuber known as Nando v Movies has an interesting rewrite of the ending in which Ares is not defeated and lives to serve as a “Big Bad” for a future film. The first two Wonder Woman the films are now available for broadcast on HBO Max. Jenkins is working on a third installment, in addition to a Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie.