‘Wonder Woman’: New Details On The Film’s 1st Act & Diana’s Backstory

We are just a few months away from the release of the highly anticipated DC Comics film from Warner Bros. Pictures, Wonder Woman, where we’ll learn the origin story of how Diana Prince (played by Gal Gadot) became the legend that we all know and love. Wonder Woman made her debut in last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the second entry in the DC Extended Universe.

Heroic Hollywood joined several outlets last week in London for an edit bay visit for the film, where director Patty Jenkins presented new footage from the movie. The visit also came with a great story presentation from Anna Obropta, a production liaison from WB, who gave us a good overview of the early parts from the film. Before we go on to discuss what we learned from our Wonder Woman visit, be aware of potential spoilers – you have officially been warned!

A Hero’s Memories

We meet Diana Prince in present day Paris, where she gets a package from Bruce Wayne that contains the photograph of her in the past (the one we saw in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and she gets overwhelmed by feelings, memories and thoughts of her history. We start to see the beginning of Diana’s early days, the story of the Amazons and the island of Themyscira. A piece of concept art showed an eight-year old Diana running through the streets in the marketplace of Themyscira. There are thousands of Amazons living there. The history of how the Amazons were created is told to Diana by her mother, Queen Hippolyta, as she talks of a time when Gods ruled the Earth. King Zeus decides one day to create mankind, as companions to the Gods.

The History Of Zeus & Ares

Ares, son of Zeus, starts to become jealous of his father’s relationship with mankind. As the God of War that he is, Ares turns them against each other, causing a series of wars. Ares even starts to kill the other Gods, but Zeus, in an effort to stop his son, creates the race of strong female warriors that we know as the Amazons. Their purpose is to restore peace, which they succeed in, but only for a temporary time. The Amazons eventually get enslaved by mankind thanks to Ares, but Hippolyta manages to break out of that control. With Zeus as the only God left, he battles his son, and manages to get him severely injured. In his final moments, Zeus takes the chance to create Themyscira, an island for the Amazons to escape to away from Ares. Diana learns that Zeus also left behind a great gift, the one thing that can kill Ares, a sword known as the God Killer.

Relationships & Training On Themyscira

The relationship between Hippolyta and her sister Antiope is a complex one as the Queen holds Diana back from being trained in fear that her daughter will one day attempt to take on Ares. Antiope has a different, more militant philosophy and she trains her niece in secret, where Diana learns to develop her powers and grow stronger. Hippolyta eventually discovers this, which seems to be a few years later, and while initially against this, she agrees to let Diana be trained. As she continues to grow from girl to woman, Diana’s powers only continue to get stronger and stronger. One day, the island gets an unexpected visitor, a young man named Steve Trevor.

Enter Steve Trevor

Steve Trevor, a fighter pilot who has been working as an agent for the British Allied Forces, has stolen intelligence from the Germans. One day he crash-lands in Themyscira, where he meets Diana. A big battle then takes place as German soldiers who have been following Steve arrive on the island and the Amazons quickly appear, ready for battle. However, they have never battled an army with guns as they fight with spears and bows. Through this battle, we get to learn more about their fighting styles, which was something that the director worked hard on designing.

Under the control of the Lasso of Truth, Steve reveals that he needs to get back to London to his superiors to give them this intelligence to end World War I, which he describes as “the war to end all wars”. He explains the rogue General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston), together with the evil Doctor Maru (Elena Anaya), have created a weapon of mass destruction in the form of a poisonous deadly gas that they intend to drop all over the frontlines. Ludendorff works outside of the German army and has his own agenda, which Steve has now learned.

Steve begs Hippolyta to help him back to London, but she doesn’t think that they have any responsibility to get him there. Diana however remembers the reason why the Amazons were created and believes that Ares is behind this war. Despite Hippolyta’s warning, Diana decides to make Steve a deal in which she assists him in getting back, but only if he promises to take her to where the fighting is most intense, as this is where Diana thinks Ares will be at. Steve isn’t really sure about this Ares thing, but he knows that he has to get off the island, so he agrees to it.

Welcome To London

In London, Diana gets to experience Man’s World as she sees a lot of new things and situations. She forms a bond with Etta Candy, who is a quirky character that helps her get more acquainted with this world. When they go to the War Council to deliver the intelligence, we meet David Thewlis’ character, Sir Patrick Morgan, who can be seen speaking about peace with the other assemblymen that are present. When Diana enters the room at the War Council, everyone goes quiet because women aren’t allowed in there. Despite the intelligence that Steve has brought to them, he doesn’t get the support from the Allied Forces that he needs for this operation.

Even though Steve has Sir Morgan’s support, the rest of them don’t want to jeopardize things by looking into a gas attack that may not even happen. Steve recruits some of his closest allies — the sharp-shooter Charlie (Ewen Bremner), master-of-disguise Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui) and a talented tradesman known as the Chief (Eugene Brave Rock) — to investigate this gas attack. Diana isn’t exactly impressed with this group and they aren’t really comfortable bringing a woman onto this journey. Nonetheless, they need to work together if they’re going to stop Ares from changing the course of World War I.

Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Lucy Davis as Etta Candy, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Robin Wright as General Antiope, Lisa Loven Kongsli as Menalippe, Danny Huston as General Erich Ludendorff, David Thewlis as Sir Patrick Morgan, Elena Anaya as Doctor Maru, Ewen Bremner as Charlie, Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer and Eugene Brave Rock as the Chief.

Wonder Woman opens in theaters on June 2, 2017. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the movie and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!