After the critical and financial success of this summer’s Wonder Woman, director Patty Jenkins is paving the way for DC’s live-action cinematic universe.

But when she was shooting the first standalone movie to feature a female superhero since 2005’s Elektra, she just wanted to make a film that satisfied moviegoers.

“It’s so surreal, really,” Jenkins says reflecting on Wonder Woman’s record-setting box office haul. The film is the highest grossing superhero origin film of all time and was the biggest money earner this summer.

“On the one hand, I always believed that a good Wonder Woman movie could be so much more successful than people might have thought,” Jenkins muses. “But the way that our particular film was embraced, not only as a Wonder Woman movie, has been so stunning and magical. For it to be a financial success and a cultural success has been pretty incredible.”

Along with star Gal Gadot, Jenkins will return to direct Wonder Woman 2, which she is co-writing with Dave Callaham (The Expendables) and DC Entertainment president Geoff Johns. The sequel is set to open in Dec. 13, 2019, and will make Jenkins the highest-paid female director of all time.

“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,” Jenkins says of her follow-up plans. “I’d like to bring her a little farther along into the future and have a fun, exciting storyline that is its own thing. Wonder Woman 1 is so much about her becoming the person she is. I can’t wait to spring forward with who she is and have another great standalone superhero film.”

With Wonder Woman available on Blu-ray this Tuesday, Jenkins rang up to talk about resetting the rules for the superhero genre, tell us why DC fans should be excited for the future and weigh in on Wonder Woman’s chances at the Oscars.

This November, fans will see Wonder Woman back in Justice League and next year we’ll see Aquaman. Why are you excited to be part of DC’s cinematic universe?

There are a lot of great filmmakers around the DC universe and there are a lot of great characters. My favourite thing about the DC universe is some of these characters have been the greatest, most original superheroes for decades. I think there’s just exciting things to be done with them ahead and lots of different people that I’m excited about seeing. All of us are very different and we’re all going to do different things. So I can’t wait to see the variety, personally.

What are you excited for people to see on the Wonder Woman Blu-ray?

There’s so much material on the Blu-ray I kind of can’t believe it. There’s almost an entire feature documentary on the making of the movie. For the people who loved the movie it is really interesting because there’s a lot of behind the scenes content on there, but the blooper reel is hilarious, there’s an extra epilogue scene with Etta Candy that we did for the home video release. Sometimes people look at the Blu-ray and it’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ But if you enjoyed the movie there’s a lot on it.

Post-credit scenes are a staple in comic book movies. Why wasn’t there one in Wonder Woman?

I’m not always a believer in post-credit scenes. I feel like they make sense if the films are extremely similar. I think if you know the next movie is going to be set in the same world or have the exact same tone, then I think it makes sense. To me, it does not make sense to have a commercial for a completely different style of movie in the credits of another movie. One of my favourite things about the DC Universe is they were super supportive of me doing my own tone, but there’s no other movie that they have that’s of the same tone. So it just felt weird to do some other crossover. Also, the end of the movie was the end. It wasn’t, ‘Tune in later for more.’

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it on to the Blu-ray?

There are no deleted scenes in the movie, but we have extensions of certain scenes on the Blu-ray. If I got my Director’s Cut, it would probably be like five minutes longer with some extra stuff that I liked, but it would be almost identically the same movie.

There’s been a lot of Oscar chatter surrounding Wonder Woman. How does that make you feel?

When you’re making a movie it’s completely all consuming; there are many things you don’t have time to think about. I certainly wasn’t thinking about the Oscars. It’s just not something you consider when you make these kinds of movies. I did the best that I could, but you kind of assume you’re not going to be considered for that kind of thing. But now, hearing that, I’m so flattered and stunned and super honoured to be in the awards conversation.

What was the best compliment you got after making Wonder Woman?

I got so many interesting comments that really moved me. But there’s an image that comes to mind of an elderly woman sitting at the back of a movie theatre. Superheroes were invented to make people imagine if they could be that powerful, what could they be like. I feel like Superman the movie did that for me. To see people who have not identified with the superhero genre experience that kind of wonderment through our movie is so powerful.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com