Fans were primed and ready to enjoy directorPatty Jenkins’ highly anticipatedWonder Womansequel this year, that is until Warner Bros. pushed the release date back seven months. Initially,Wonder Woman 1984was due to arrive in theaters in November 2019, but last October word surfaced that Warner Bros. was pushing the movie back all the way to July 01, 2025. That was a significant delay, and a bummer for those who were looking forward to seeingGal Gadotback with the lasso in theaters in 2019.
A specific reason for theWonder Woman 2release date change wasn’t fully clarified, but when the new date was announced,Gadot took to Twitterto note that the film was “back to its rightful home,” referring to the June release date. Indeed, June 2017 is when the firstWonder Womanopened to stellar box office and critical raves, so it stands to reason the follow-up should perform quite well in that summer month.
So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with producerCharles Rovenin anticipation of the release of the Netflix thrillerTriple Frontier, he asked whyWonder Woman 1984’s release date was moved. As it turns out, Summer 2020 is the date the filmmakers wanted all along:
“We always wanted the date that we are on right now. The studio felt that until their slate for the year before came together—and they had an amazing end of 2018—that they needed to have a big what I call aircraft carrier, a “tentpole”, in [2019]. We had a very rushed pre-production because Patty also did the TNT show and we had a very rushed post-production schedule in order to make the date that we were on, which was August 16, 2025. We were doing it because the studio said they really needed it, and then at a certain point they came to us and they said, ‘You know what, you guys are right. Let’s go back to the month that you guys releasedWonder Woman 1in, and take the extra time.’”
The release date change was announced in late October 2018, just after Warner Bros. releasedA Star Is Bornto smashing success, and a couple months afterCrazy Rich Asianswas a bona fide hit. And that’s all beforeAquamanswam into theaters in December and crushed it. So Warner Bros. looked at its slate and realized they didn’t necessarily needWonder Woman 1984in 2019, especially a rushed version of the film. They’ve already got theItsequel, twoConjuring-verse movies, andJokeron the way, and the DC filmShazam!is poised to hit big when it opens in theaters next week.
So all’s well that ends well, and I’m glad Jenkins and Co. were given the time necessary to makeWonder Woman 1984on their own terms. Roven’s answer here provides a bit of an inside look at how many sizable compromises are sometimes necessary to get a movie of this scale made, and how release dates can often be determined by the monetary needs of the studio and not exactly the quality of the film.
