Superhero movies have retaken Hollywood over the last few years, with franchise reboots of Spiderman, Batman and The Avengers—including offshoots starring Iron Man, Thor and Captain America—finally figuring out how to do the comic book genre justice. It’s easy to forget just how long superheroes were stuck in the dark ages, though, as studios treated them and their fans with little respect.
Remember George Clooney as Batman? Ben Affleck as Daredevil? The half-baked Catwoman and Elektra villain spinoffs? While studios have been happy to cash in on moviegoers’ fascination with superhero flicks, none of the productions seemed to take the title characters or their stories very seriously.
Then something changed. Sin City, the black-as-an-oil-slick 2005 adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic graphic novel—as well as the mammoth success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins—showed audiences craved deep characters and engaging stories, even in big budget blockbusters.
Now that quality comic book movies are in vogue in Hollywood, it’s high time some of our favourite heroes got the proper cinematic treatments they deserve.
Christina Hendricks as Wonder Woman?
Wonder Woman
It’s hard to believe we’ve never seen a Wonder Woman movie in a theatre. Seriously! Apparently folks in Hollywood have been trying to get a film made since 2001—Joss Whedon was attached as writer for a time, though he left the project when he felt he couldn’t quite do justice to her origin story—but haven’t built enough momentum to get a production off the ground.
Though her background has been tweaked over the years, most of the important points have remained: Wonder Woman, aka Princess Diana of Themyscira, came from a tribe of Amazon women and was blessed with superpowers by the gods of Greek mythology. She uses these powers to fight for justice and peace, and stands as an icon of feminist ideals in a male-dominated genre.
The most recent news is Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) hopes to make a Wonder Woman film with Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks in the lead—we couldn’t think of a better casting choice.
