WONDER WOMAN 1854: Zack Snyder Outlines Prequel Story Idea That Never Came To Fruition

Remember that photo Zack Snyder shared back in 2021 of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) holding a trio of severed heads? It turns out there was a whole backstory behind it...

By MarkCassidy - Apr 10, 2024 03:04 PM EST

Filed Under: Wonder Woman

As Wonder Woman fans will do doubt recall, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder shared a photo of Diana (Gal Gadot) to social media back in 2021, around the time of the release of his director's cut of Justice League.

The shot featured the iconic DC Comics heroine surrounded by fellow warriors on the battlefield... while holding a trio of severed heads in her hand!

Fans debated whether Wonder Woman would ever display such macabre trophies from her fallen foes (there have been some pretty savage takes on the character in the comics over the years, to be fair), but Snyder did note that this was an "Else-World" version of the character in his post.

Now, Snyder has revealed that the idea of a prequel story focusing on a slightly more ruthless Wonder Woman travelling the world prior to meeting Steve Trever (Chris Pine) was tossed around.

“The idea of that was an early riff we were doing: once Wonder Woman left the island in search of Ares, what happened to her in her different incarnations?” the filmmaker explains to Empire. “My idea for it was that she would travel around the world looking for Ares and she would go to every place where there was conflict.”

It sounds like Wondy was fond of assembling a bit of a... following during her early adventures.

“On those battlefields she found these lovers, warriors, and they would age out because she is immortal,” he elaborates. “They would be her lover for ten years or they might die in battle, and it was probably sad for a lot of the guys because they would see her starting to be nice to the next young soldier and be like, ‘Oh, I’m being replaced.’ But all the guys that she had with her were those loyal warriors she found on the battlefields all over the world.”

“We talked about if Steve Trevor was there in Crimea,” he adds, possibly hinting that there was talk of connecting this story to Patty Jenkins' WW84 at some point. “It was never a screenplay, but we talked about it so much that it kind of had its own life.”

Wonder Woman 1854 - This amazing image shot by Stephen Berkman of an else-world, war weary Diana, who had chased Aries across the battlefields of the world and had yet to meet Steve, who would help her restore her faith in mankind and love itself. pic.twitter.com/eofkAMg9as
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) January 5, 2021

Despite Gadot suggesting otherwise in a 2023 interview, Wonder Woman 3 is not currently in the works, and it doesn't sound like there are plans in place for Gadot to reprise the role in the DCU.

There are no current plans (as far as we know, at least) for any incarnation of Wonder Woman in the first chapter of the DCU slate, "Gods and Monsters," but a Max TV series titled Paradise Lost is in development that will focus on “a Game of Thrones-type story about Themyscira.”

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75 Comments

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WhatIfRickJames - 4/10/2024, 3:35 PM

That actually sounds like a good idea. A battle worn, cynical Diana vs. someone trying to understand her new powers days after learning she had them.

Apophis71 - 4/10/2024, 3:57 PM

@WhatIfRickJames - Battle worn fair enough, do the whole Xena thing I guess I could see, but a long list of lovers and collecting trophy heads is dumb and not needed and would kinda undermine the whole love story with Steve Trevor if he was just another of her long list of romantic interest doomed to die or be dumped.

I guess more my issue, although I can get a battle worn thing, is do you WANT a hero like Wonder Woman to start out like that the first ever time you get her in a film? That and then trying to turn that around well to being the iconic character most think of with her in a single film?

Some characters work well going from dark or shades of grey and then elevated but ones like Wonder Woman or Superman should start out more idealistic first, then can be taken down darker paths (then redemption) not the other way around unless doing something like Brightburn.

Heck it would make more sense her being an asexual battle weary warrior, untrusting of any men, or only having female love interests pre Steve than having the long list of male warrior lovers suggested here if going anywhere near this approach.

McMurdo - 4/10/2024, 5:59 PM

@Apophis71 - the post-modern "cant hump men because im a strong woman" schtick is just giga-lefty nonsense. A true feminist icon such as Diana would have zero qualms sleeping with any man she desires because SHE is the one in power....every single time.

Apophis71 - 4/10/2024, 6:22 PM

@McMurdo - Wasn't even going there with that, more that setting up with stating she finds a new lover ever 10yrs (or sooner if they die) undermines the whole nature of the specific character and subverts the supposed love story with another 'warrior' who dies. Serves no purpose and goes against the specific character she is supposed to be for no good reason and nothing to do with a general thing about if collectively strong women can or would have many lovers or not.

I mean unless you wanna go back to the BDSMesque bisexual version of Wonder Woman before the comic code that is, but point is talking about a specific character and how she is normaly written and what we expect the specific character to be like.

dagenspear - 4/10/2024, 8:05 PM

@WhatIfRickJames - But it doesn't fit with the overall story.

Th3Batman - 4/10/2024, 3:40 PM

Give WB 9 great ideas and 1 terrible idea, they'll always manage to pick the worst one somehow.

dracula - 4/10/2024, 4:02 PM

@Th3Batman - so the good idea is turning wonder woman into a xena/red sonja wannabe

And the good bad idea is the faithful adaption we got

dagenspear - 4/10/2024, 8:04 PM

@Th3Batman - They didn't pick the worse one here, so eh.

Th3Batman - 4/10/2024, 3:44 PM

It's amazing that WB has the rights to the most iconic female superhero ever created, yet somehow WW84 was the best they could do with access to 75+ years of comic history.

Usernametaken - 4/10/2024, 3:48 PM

@Th3Batman - you could say that about 80% of CBMs though

Th3Batman - 4/10/2024, 3:53 PM

@Usernametaken - WB is definitely worse. It's been over 45 years since we got a Superman movie that was universally loved by everyone. Let that sink in. WB has literally done nothing with anyone outside of Batman, and even then they gave us the likes of Batman & Robin as well as Batman V Superman along the way.

JFerguson - 4/10/2024, 4:39 PM

@Th3Batman - WB is the worst studio to have a licensed IP with. They are notoriously a shit studio. Recent successes like Barbie and Dune are completely due to the great producers and passionate artists working on them.

dagenspear - 4/10/2024, 8:03 PM

@Th3Batman - Hilariously it's still strong than what Snyder did with Superman.

FinnishDude - 4/10/2024, 3:48 PM

You can usually tell that someone might not be the best person to tell Wonder Woman stories, if their main focus is on the "fierce female warrior" rather than "compassionate diplomat".

Kinda like putting focus on "an alien from Krypton" over "farmboy from Smallville" with Superman.

Itwasme - 4/10/2024, 3:54 PM

@FinnishDude - it kind of also undercuts the idea of hunting Ares if she ends up playing a part in the wars doesn't it?

"We have to stop Ares because all this war and bloodshed is wrong, and I'm going to kill every mf'r who gets in my way..."

TheVisionary25 - 4/10/2024, 5:28 PM

@FinnishDude - I think you can still tell good stories about WW if you focus on the fierce female warrior dude though I get ya about Superman.

eRex - 4/10/2024, 4:11 PM

She's a (mostly) immortal warrior and always has been. I like this idea and character arc going from time and time again not finding Ares and not finding love or faith in the world of man to discovering the right person and finally finding and defeating Ares. That's some good old character development that takes a realistic approach to what a god like Wonder Woman might discover about our war-heavy world from the Greek ages through World War II.

dagenspear - 4/10/2024, 8:03 PM

@eRex - But it doesn't make sense with the version he developed, where Diana has again no regard for the world of men. So she fights in wars for 100s of years, becomes bitter, falls in love, he dies, so she can go back to dismissing mankind so she can change again in BvS. It's basically a character circle

LSHF - 4/10/2024, 8:20 PM

@eRex - That sounds great, providing the comic book fans exercise patience while their heroes grow as better people throughout their arcs (and not like the lack of patience given to the arcs of Bruce and Kal-El in Snyder's movies).

Ben, Henry and Zack had similar cool character arcs planned. I was looking forward to seeing their arcs completed.

Again, geat sounding.

THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 4/10/2024, 4:14 PM

That makes no sense. Diana is supposed to be naïve to the outside world until she meets Steve and she leaves Themyscira.

JobinJ - 4/10/2024, 4:14 PM

SO.....eraset he whole canon? When she met Steve in WW she was fresh off the island. I don't get it?

bkmeijer1 - 4/10/2024, 5:07 PM

@JobinJ - I'm thinking the initial idea was to have the Crimean War as setting instead of WWI. Don't think both ideas were ever to be part of the same continuity

JobinJ - 4/10/2024, 5:49 PM

@bkmeijer1 - oh ok.

CharlesLeeRay - 4/10/2024, 4:17 PM

Is that image a thing in the movies?

bkmeijer1 - 4/10/2024, 5:14 PM

@CharlesLeeRay - don't think so. He says it's Elseworlds now too, although I doubt that was always the plan

ObserverIO - 4/11/2024, 5:24 AM

@CharlesLeeRay - That was the original photo from BvS but then they replaced it with the WWI photo when Patty started filming.

Superheromoviefan - 4/10/2024, 4:19 PM

i think wb shouldve either chosen the snyderverse or faithfull comic adaption. by trying to do both they ruined it. i finally understood that snyder's vision wasnt a comicbook adaptation, but his own variation

bkmeijer1 - 4/10/2024, 5:11 PM

@Superheromoviefan - I agree. Think WB should've just made a DC Universe more faithful to the comics (like they're doing now).

Snyder's "deconstructive" interpretation should've been it's owm thing, either as Elseworlds or with original characters. Think the latter could've worked, as The Boys and Invincible show

grif - 4/10/2024, 4:28 PM

wait? so she went to see the world came back forgot it then went to ww1 like it was all new?

bkmeijer1 - 4/10/2024, 5:05 PM

@grif - I'm guessing the movie would've been different, maybe not even feature WWI at all. Lines up with Snyder sayinf Trevor lived in the Crimean War age as well

Fogs - 4/10/2024, 5:09 PM

@grif - Totally. Dimineshes her awe with the outer world altogether.

ObserverIO - 4/11/2024, 5:25 AM

@grif - she hit her head a lot.

Toonstrack - 4/10/2024, 4:38 PM

This would be an interesting story to tell for some OC Amazon or maybe Artemis but not diana

JFerguson - 4/10/2024, 4:42 PM

This is the Zack Snyder universe in a nutshell

Movie of the week, character bastardization garbage

jonathanstrange - 4/10/2024, 4:47 PM

Zack should be talking about his "amazing" Rebel Moon "concept movie". Why he keeps returning to characters that he'll (God willing) never touch again?

SpiderParker - 4/10/2024, 4:57 PM

@jonathanstrange - Clearly to trigger his SnyderCult into watching Rebel Moon and making them think its a movie that general audience and critics just don't understand.

Fogs - 4/10/2024, 5:10 PM

@jonathanstrange - desperation for relevance.

Android - 4/10/2024, 7:57 PM

@jonathanstrange - because he keeps getting asked about them , especially pictures like this one. Really he won't start talking about rebel moon until his cuts are out which I'm kind of counting down the days until it happens because I'm curious what Netflix wanted cut or Snyder filmed that Netflix didn't think should fit their version but his (and yes Snyder confirmed almost a year ago that the agreement with Netflix was "we get this 2 hour version and you make this Snyder cut for each ." and if you don't believe me look up Slash films interview from August last year where he details it in the article titled "Zack Snyder Reveals His Rebel Moon Inspirations")

Apophis71 - 4/11/2024, 12:53 PM

@Android - I think most of us get that he keeps getting asked, what many keep questioning is why his answers isn't I don't want to retread all of that and steer the convo back to what he's just made (the two Rebel Moon films) and or what he plans to do in the future.

That or option three and I had a lot of ideas that I thought would be intesting to explore but now more interested to see what other ideas others come up with in the new DC movies to come without going over all the weary warrior trophy head collecting stuff which he's already talked about many time already.

tmp3 - 4/10/2024, 4:52 PM

They had the entire Greek Pantheon to play with and somehow both WW movies just wound up being Donner homages, haha. Hopefully they explore more of the Amazons in the DCU

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