Yesterday came the news via Deadline that the Wonder Woman tv series, Amazon, was pushed back to next season by CW. This makes a lot of sense seeing as apparently they had no script.
However, that really isn’t a reason for them to stop. The point of ‘pilot season‘ is to figure out what shows, which are at this point on paper, you want to produce. You then start the process of casting, getting a crew, stage set up, etc. They had already started on casting so they must have had least a bare bones script. All that they would need to do is settle everything else which is what getting greenlighted is all about. So there is no real excuse, logistics wise, for them to push back Amazon.
As for the possibility of this show pulling any ratings, the fact that Arrow has been doing quite well (for CW) despite the fact that I, personally, think it is horribly written, means that they know they have an audience. Although, there is much to be said about not wanting to flood the market… except that Arrow is the only superhero show on television at the moment seeing as Alphas has been cancelled.
I’m sure the execs who decided to push back Amazon have reasons we’re not privy to and that’s understandable. However, this doesn’t change the fact that Wonder Woman simply can’t catch a break.
In 2012, Warners said it was moving forward with a Wonder Woman movie, a movie we’ve not heard about since. That’s probably a good thing as the script was from the man who did the Green Lantern movie… and we all know how that turned out.
Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman
Let’s be honest, this looks like bad cosplay.
In 2011, NBC tried their hand at a Wonder Woman tv series with Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman, it failed spectacularly.
In 2010, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner wanted to do a Wonder Woman movie because apparently Warners ‘doesn’t want’ the franchise. That also failed to materialize anything.
In… you know what, read these two articles:
Will Hollywood ever get ‘Wonder Woman’ right?
The Weird History of Wonder Woman in TV, Movies and Beyond
These articles pretty much show how crazy it’s been to get a live-action Wonder Woman on the air, be it tv or film, since Lynda Carter’s 1975 tv series.
This begs the question everyone has been trying to answer, why can’t Wonder Woman catch a break and have a tv show of her own, even if it’s animated?
There have long been complaints about equality on television and the lack of ‘strong female roles’, and while many might say “execs don’t think people would watch a female superhero”, I have to wonder if it’s actually more like people realizing that to make her the character everyone wants her to be would literally mean creating a whole new character that, technically, isn’t Wonder Woman.
Woman Woman was created in 1941. This is not exactly the most progressive of times for gender equality, as made prominent by the fact when she first joined the Justice League they made her their secretary.
But that’s not the worst part. Wonder Woman is from a group of women based on the Greek Amazons, the Greek Amazon women of course being known for subjugating men for procreation and lobbing off breasts. To this effect, Wonder Woman carries a lasso. Up until the 80s, one of her weaknesses was ‘being bound by a man‘. And her famous bracelets? Yeah, those were “Bracelets of Submission”, if she didn’t wear them she went into an uncontrollable rage, and by slamming them together she could incapacitate Superman. Yeah, if that’s not innuendo I don’t know what is.
Sensation Comics #1
Wonder Woman’s first appearance
As Randall Hamm puts it, “A reoccurring theme is the dominance of women over men, by teaching them ‘loving submission.’” and “… the early Wonder Woman comes off as a fetishistic fantasy. That may be one of the biggest reasons it was such huge success with a male audience.”
So, yeah, Wonder Woman was a blatant dominatrix which is not exactly the best symbol for feminism.
But in the late 80s, Wonder Woman was revamped during the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot. But now she’s not even human but made from clay? Then comes the next reboot, The New 52, and now she’s a demigoddess, still not a human. Oh, these Amazons also force themselves on sailors and kill them afterwards. Not to mention that it’s not been 20 issues and Wonder Woman’s already had one forced marriage and kissed Superman! (Note: Supes and Bats never got this far out in their reboots, each time they’re essentially the same as they’ve always been.)
I’m not really trying to bad mouth Wonder Woman, she as all the potential to be a strong female character and a feminist icon, but at the same time she’s hiting all the right notes… she also hits all the wrong ones. I would gather that only a third (probably less) of those who have heard of Wonder Woman have actually read her comics or anything about her many origins. So they only know her as a “strong female Superheroine” and are down with that. Put her up in a movie for everyone to see, especially in a time where ‘camp superhero shows’ are no longer the vogue, and you run into a real big problem.
If one side isn’t complaining about her being a travesty to feminism, the other side is complaining that ‘this isn’t true to Wonder Woman’, with a third side muttering to themselves how ‘they made her PC, the sell-outs’.
Until they can figure out how to marry her not-so-glorious past with realistic and modern feminine ideals, she just won’t make it off the paper into a mass media like film or television. Finding this Wonder Woman “sweet spot” looks to be an arduous task, one that a few have tried and none have succeeded at.
Although… they could start by getting an actual female to write her… just saying…
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