Wonder Woman’s Origins May Get A Major Alteration In Man Of Steel 2

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

WonderWomanAt this point Man of Steel 2 is rumored to include cameos or major appearances from damn near everybody in the DC universe. Seriously, I would not be surprised to plant my butt in the theater in 2015 and see Ambush Bug pop up in the opening scene. But after Ben Affleck’s Batman/Bruce Wayne, by far the biggest MoS2 participant is Gal Gidot as Wonder Woman. The size and nature of her role is still up for debate, and the size and nature of her physique has been the subject of much fanboy hemming and hawing since her casting was first announced. But if you thought “Skinny Wonder Woman-gate” had people apoplectic, we can only imagine how the Interwebs will react if the latest rumor regarding the Amazon’s origins proves to be true.

Batman on Film’s Jett Ramey started the new year out with a bang, responding to reader questions about the next Superman film with — so far — unconfirmed tidbits from his unnamed sources. Those details range from the identity of the film’s main villain to whether Man of Steel 2 is really just a Justice League movie in disguise. By far the most interesting revelation, however, has to do with Wonder Woman and her impending filmic origins. An Amazon warrior sent from Paradise Island/Themyscira to be an ambassador to the world of man, Wonder Woman’s background has always been steeped in Greek mythology. But according to BoF, this new version of Wonder Woman may be sporting something wholly unexpected: Kryptonian DNA.

You read that right. BoF’s Ramey laid out this jaw-dropper, which, if true, will undoubtedly be met with torches and pitchforks from many long-time Wonder Woman fans. Ramey says:

I’d bet a year’s pay — in MONOPOLY money, of course — that the ‘Amazons’ of this cinematic DCU will be descendants of those “ancient Kryptonians” who attempted to set up Kryptonian outposts throughout spacedom thousands and thousands of years ago. Furthermore, I say that Wonder Woman will be powered-down, if you will, relative to Superman because these Amazons have evolved and adapted to living on Earth for hundreds of centuries. And since Kryptonians are produced without any ‘He’n and She’n’ — Jor El and Lara excluded – couldn’t this original Kryptonian on Earth have used this reproductive science to create an all-female race? I say yes!

While this should be taken with an entire Fortress of Solitude full of salt at this point, it does make a certain sort of sense. With Wonder Woman, DC is faced with the same problem Marvel was up against with Thor: how do you integrate a magic-based character into a cinematic universe that, up until that point, has at least mostly been “science-based,” even if that connection to the real world was tenuous? Marvel’s solution was to apply Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So Thor, Odin, and the rest were indeed the “gods” of legend, but there was nothing supernatural about them. They just had access to tech primitive earthlings couldn’t possibly fathom at the time. This change to Wonder Woman would seem to be the same sort of concept, attempting to rejigger the Amazonian’s origins so they blend more seamlessly with the sci-fi trappings of Man of Steel (and with it, the burgeoning DC movie universe).

However, the changes to Thor’s backstory didn’t actually alter that much. Thor was still the God of Thunder, he still had the hammer, the Asgardians were still the Asgardians; his backstory only went through a shift in perspective. Making Wonder Woman and the Amazonians descendants of ancient Kryptonian colonists is a whole other ball of Kryptonite, one which would fundamentally shift the lore and nature of the character. Could Wonder Woman still be an interesting character with Kryptonian blood in her veins? Sure, but it would seem to leave her forever in Kal-El’s shadow, and I imagine DC’s going to have an uphill battle winning over fans…assuming the story proves to be more than just a rumor.

But hey, I’d still take a Kryptonian Wonder Woman over a David E. Kelly Wonder Woman any day of the week.

KelleyWonder
NOPE.