After waiting so long for the tide to turn, 2020 will be a record year for female directors in the comic book industry. Variety has reminded us that four major superhero movies of 2020 will be directed by women: Birds of Prey by Cathy Yan, Black Widow by Cate Shortland, Wonder Woman 1984 by Patty Jenkins and Eternals by Chloé Zhao. Not bad considering how long it took for Marvel to actually get to this point. So let’s look at them and talk about which ones excite us and what comes next.

Birds of Prey

Probably the movie I’m looking for most out of the bunch. I love all of these characters (even Harley, I just think she’s overexposed), and I’m excited to see so much diversity on screen. Black Canary is one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. We are going to get to see the Canary Cry on the big screen, and that gives me life.

Beyond the nerd level, what excites me about this film is that it is a risk. Other than Harley, none of these characters are “big” in the same way that Wonder Woman is. For a lot of people, this will be the first time they ever actually see or hear about some of these characters so making a film about a collection of not as well know comic book heroes and anti-heroines is just ballsy. I’m glad it’s happening and hopefully, it’ll encourage the studio to keep making more risks with who they put on screen.

Black Widow

Yeah, taking away all my biases, the trailer looks interesting. That being said, I just feel like this is too little too late. Beyond my lack of interest in paying to see ScarJo in any future projects, I just feel like the desire to see a Black Widow movie with her in it has waned for some people. Not to mention, her death in Endgame left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, this film is going to be a send off to this character, but why couldn’t Natasha had gotten a good sendoff in literally the movie made of big sendoffs? Thankfully, this film has an amazing cast of actors who will draw viewers in.

Wonder Woman

So … another unpopular opinion … Wonder Woman is a film that has gotten less interesting to me the more I watch it. She was never a character who I loved anyway, but I always do want her to get her props in the universe. With Wonder Woman 1984, I think it looks nice, but it feels more beautiful than interesting. We didn’t really get any insight into the plot and I feel like I still am waiting to be sold on Kristen Wiig as Cheetah. I’m going to see it because as a woman and a feminist I think I’ll get blacklisted if I don’t, but I am now in a place where I’m more willing to openly say “I want more.” (Also seeing Gina Carano gifs from The Mandalorian make me wish she was Wonder Woman and I’m not sorry.)

Eternals

We still don’t know much about the Eternals but it stands out as being the only movie on this list not about a female lead(s). While there are going to be some big-name women in it the cast, is made out of a lot of different actors: Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, and Kit Harington. Truly an ensemble. Since this film will be setting the tone for the next era of the MCU the pressure is on and the fact that a Chinese-American female film director is getting the chance makes me really excited to check it out. Even if I don’t know much about who the Eternals are.

What I am most excited about is that we have options! One of the hardest things about being in the Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel era—where there was only one female-directed comic book movie per big studio—was that there was so much pressure to be moved and feel something. Well, I didn’t feel anything. And feminists, especially those of us who are anti-military industrial complex, should feel able to push back against any comic book movie without fear that anything negative we say will be picked up by anti-SJW people.

I don’t have to care about Black Widow because I can go see Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey and Eternals instead and that feels good!

(via Variety, image: DC Comics/WB)

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