Wonder Woman Lassoes A Prequel TV Series In DC Universe's New Project Slate
Get ready, girls, because we're headed back to Themyscira! New co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran gave a presentation announcing the upcoming slate of movies and television shows in their new version of the DC Comics cinematic universe, now called the DCU. (Previously the interconnected films of the DC film world were called the DC Extended Universe or DCEU.) One of the announcements at the presentation, attended by /Film's own Jenna Busch, was that they will be developing a new series called "Paradise Lost" that will focus on the island where Wonder Woman was born and raised, the home of the Amazons.
The series will be a prequel and will be pretty different tonally from the bombastic action of the Patty Jenkins-directed films. From what it sounds like, we're unlikely to see Diana/Wonder Woman at all, unless it's in some sort of frame narrative as she tells the tale of Themyscira. Whether we see Wonder Woman or not, I'm extremely intrigued about a show that explores this mythical matriarchal isle.
An island of ladies and power games
At the press event, Gunn and Safran explained their plan to develop a "Wonder Woman" prequel series that is closer to "Game of Thrones" than "The Justice League," following the origin story of this society of women, how they live, and how they must evolve over time. Safran said that the series takes place before Diana was born, while Gunn revealed some of the ideas behind the series:
"[...] this involves all the darkness and drama and political intrigue behind this society of only women. It's an origin story, a way of 'How did this society of women come about?' What does it mean? What are their politics like? What are their rules? Who's in charge? What are all the games that they play with each other to get to the top?"
While all of this sounds very cool, I hope that the series doesn't fall into stereotypes about women and that the team behind the scenes is heavily female, but Gunn's been pretty good about that sort of thing with his work for DC so far.
There isn't much more information yet about "Paradise Lost," which will likely stream on whatever HBO's streaming service becomes (probably called HBO+, if I were a betting person), but it is an exciting new story that will help tie together the various continuities and provide some context for one of its greatest heroes. It's also pretty neat that Gunn and Safran seem open to the idea of exploring non-superhero stories within the scope of DC, and that they're willing to play with so many different tones and types of stories. Many people have grown frustrated by the same comic book stories told on repeat, so something fresh might be exactly what DC needs.