Wonder Woman

If you only look at the surface numbers, this was a pretty predictable week at the box office. Wonder Woman did well, The Mummy did not, and everything else shook out accordingly. That being said, there’s some pretty interesting narratives emerging in the how and why of this weekend’s box office report. Let’s take a look at the rankings as of Sunday afternoon and dive into some of the specifics:

As we noted in our review of Wonder Woman, the primary antagonist of the film, the God of War Ares, is a bit of a mystery. Early in the film, a young Diana (Gal Gadot) is taught the origin of her race of Amazons, which involves Ares slaughtering all the other Greek gods. Many years later, Diana learns of World War I from Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and believes it’s the work of Ares. So she sets off into the outside world to find him and kill him in order to free mankind from his influence.

'Wonder Woman' is bursting with female empowerment, thrilling action and emotional storytelling.

Following the negative reactions to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the party line over at Warner Bros. right now seems to be “fun.” Studio executives and creatives have been assuring fans that, moving forward, their DC movies are going to be a bit lighter than Zack Snyder’s grim-and-gritty superhero epic. And while we’ve been told The Flash and Justice League movies will be fun, someone apparently didn’t get that memo for Wonder Woman.

Zack Snyder makes superhero movies, but his characters don’t act very heroic. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice features all the other trappings of the superhero genre: Capes, gadgets, outlandish muscles, punching stuff. But the two stars aren’t noble or chivalrous; they’re violent, aggressive, and angry — mostly at each other instead of the bad guys. In Snyder’s formulation, protecting the world from evil isn’t a gift or a calling; it’s a burden. And that feeling is reflected in the movie itself, a burdensome 150- minute slog about two men fighting over who is in the right when both are very clearly in the wrong.

The latest trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is more like “BATMAN!!!! (And Oh Yeah Superman Too).”

Last we heard, Warner Bros. hadn’t yet officially given the Wonder Woman solo film the green light, which wasn’t entirely surprising given that a script wasn’t firmly in place. But today brings good news on the Wonder Woman front: shooting will begin this fall for the hero’s upcoming solo adventure, with — as previously confirmed — Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad vet Michelle MacLaren in the director’s chair.

There’s some maybe not-so-great news here to report: the ‘Wonder Woman’ film is reportedly in negotiations with a screenwriter following the hiring of director Michelle MacLaren. And although we had our fingers crossed that WB would also hire a woman to script the film, their screenwriter of choice is Jason Fuchs, who is, as you may have guessed, a dude. He’s also responsible for the screenplay for the upcoming ‘Pan’ movie, which doesn’t seem very promising. But there’s still hope! Don’t feel too bad yet!

So here's some pretty exciting news on top of the already exciting news that Wonder Woman is getting her very own solo film from DC and Warner Bros. A new report reveals plans that Wonder Woman's first solo outing will be set in a time period before the 'Justice League' film -- actually, it'll be set long, long before then. Not only that, but there are ultimately plans for three 'Wonder Woman' films. Three! Your move, Marvel.

We really don't know much about how Wonder Woman will fit into the plot of 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.' We do know that she's being played by Gal Gadot and that she will, somehow, get some screen time alongside Henry Cavill's Superman, Ben Affleck's Batman and Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor. But that's about it ... until now! Thanks to a tiny snippet (caught on Vine, no less) we now know that DC's Amazon warrior will forego her classic origin story in favor of her modern beginning.