Will Gal Gadot return for ‘Wonder Woman’ sequel?
Neither the Amazing Amazon nor director Patty Jenkins are believed to be under contract for another film, though Gadot reportedly has an option
Yaakov Schwartz is The Times of Israel's deputy Jewish World editor
You don’t need the Lasso of Truth to figure out that the bigwigs at Warner Bros. didn’t foresee such massive box office success for “Wonder Woman,” and it might cost them.
It appears that neither the film’s star, Israeli actress Gal Gadot, nor director Patty Jenkins are currently under contract for a sequel — though The Hollywood Reporter does claim that Gadot has an option.
The good news is that we’ll be seeing the Goddess of Truth sooner than you’d expect — Gadot will be back on the silver screen this November in the upcoming “Justice League.”
But as that appears to be the final movie in a three-film contract signed in 2014 (the first two being “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and, of course, “Wonder Woman”), it looks like Gadot, along with Jenkins, will be returning to the negotiating table prior to any “Wonder Woman” part two.
It’s not unusual for high-power studios to start new directors off with one-film deals these days, and Gadot’s trifecta was standard for an emerging actress as well. But with a $103 million domestic opening, and global box office totals currently edging past $450 million, an encore for the Amazon princess is pretty much a sure thing.
For her part, Jenkins has been up-front about how she feels about getting back into the director’s chair. In an interview with the Toronto Sun over a month before the film’s June 2 release, she was already planning Diana Prince’s next steps.
“I’m excited for her to come to America and become the Wonder Woman we are all familiar with from having grown up around her as an American superhero,” she told the Sun. “I’d like to bring her a little farther along into the future and have a fun, exciting storyline that is its own thing.”
There is little doubt that the film wouldn’t have achieved such instantaneous blockbuster status without Gadot’s on-camera charisma, and she’s as celebrated abroad as she is at home — where she is touted as one of Israel’s best exports.
Critics and audiences (except, perhaps, in Lebanon and Jordan) have enthused about the 32-year-old mother of two, who has been celebrated as a symbol of female strength. There has been a barrage of analysis on the role of feminism in the film — most of it positive.
Gadot herself says she sees Wonder Woman as a feminist – and we’re going to take her at her word. After all, the Hebrew heroine was five months pregnant when she shot the film.
While director Jenkins was excited about “Wonder Woman” from the beginning, she was somewhat less enthused with the studio’s choice of star. In an interview with Playboy she revealed that she was initially disappointed with the fact that she wasn’t able to cast the role herself. But, she acknowledged, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“Frankly, I think they did a better job than I could have because I don’t know that I would have scoured the earth as hard to find her,” she told the magazine. “I don’t know that I would’ve looked internationally. I would have just looked for an American girl.”
There are rumors swirling that the “Wonder Woman” director could be in the running for the Superman movie “Man of Steel 2,” but even to super fans, they seem like a bit of a stretch.
“It’s no secret that I love Superman but right now I’m just happy doing Wonder Woman,” Jenkins said during a recent Reddit AMA.
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