Why WB Cancelled Wonder Woman 3, Revealed by New Report

By Russ Milheim Updated:
Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot

Gal Gadot's third Wonder Woman film won't be moving forward at DC Studios.

When Gadot debuted back in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, she was met with strong positive reception. A year later, those reactions carried over into her first solo film, Wonder Woman, with many claiming it to be one of the best DCU entries to date.

But then Justice League was released a few months after—and, simply put, it bombed so badly that it resulted in the end of Zack Snyder’s time working on the franchise. Yet, Wonder Woman 1984 was still made with Patty Jenkins.

Sadly, the second entry didn’t land the same way as the first; it actually went remarkably poorly. Despite that, another sequel was still green-lit. However, no details on when it aimed to release were ever revealed.

Now, some sad news has broken, and it spells doom for Gadot’s time as Diana.

The End of Wonder Woman?

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman 3 has been canceled by Warner Bros.

The outlet's sources say that the movie "is not moving forward and is considered dead in its current incarnation."

But why was this choice made?

This move comes in the wake of James Gunn and Peter Safran being hired to lead the DCU, as the two are hard at work on putting together a presentation to show WB CEO David Zaslav what their upcoming slate will be.

The report stated that the two new DCU co-leads, alongside Warner Bros. Pictures co-chairs and co-CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, broke the news to Patty Jenkins, citing that "as [the project] stood... [it] did not fit in with the new [but still unfolding) plans."

Is A New Diana Prince on the Way?

Needless to say, this is a shocking move.

On the one hand, why it’s happening makes sense—if Gunn and Safran truly want to make a coherent, interwoven universe, a blank slate is the best way to go. 

But, looking at the positive sentiment towards Gadot as Wonder Woman and how she literally tweeted a tease a day ago, canceling her third solo outing just didn’t feel like something they’d do. 

Even the writer for the third movie recently revealed that they'd just written the final scene of the script. But hey, this is the same company that canned a nearly finished Batgirl, so nothing’s ever really off the table.

Many assumed that the least Gunn would do for the film would be to have it simply exist in a new timeline—one more relevant to their upcoming plans.

The report also paints a bad picture of Galdot’s future, as she may be hanging up the lasso for good. If the new regime chooses to use Wonder Woman, odds are it will be an entirely new actress.

While this is likely to piss off many Snyderverse fans, maybe this is exactly what the DCU needs; to build itself an entirely new foundation.

- About The Author: Russ Milheim
Russ Milheim is the Industry Relations Coordinator at The Direct. On top of utilizing his expertise on the many corners of today’s entertainment to cover the latest news and theories, he establishes and maintains communication and relations between the outlet and the many studio and talent representatives.