Professor Marston And The Wonder Women Director Says Movie Is A Love Story

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, the upcoming biopic about the creator of Wonder Woman, may not feature as much bullet deflecting action as the character's recent standalone film, but, based on recent comments from director Angela Robinson, it still looks to be an interesting take on the character. Robinson revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that the film will focus heavily on the creator's romantic relationships, using them as a jumping off point for how Diana Prince came to be.

Beauty and the Beast's Luke Evans leads Professor Marston and the Wonder Women as William Moulton Marston, a psychologist and inventor who first started publishing comics featuring Diana Prince under a pseudonym in 1941. The film chronicles the love affair between Marston, his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), and his former student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote). 

"It's fundamentally a love story between the three of them," Robinson said. "It's an exploration of their ideas [about feminism, bondage, and pacifism] and his relationship with Elizabeth and Olive, and their relationship with him, and then how all of that found its way into Wonder Woman."

Robinson said that she initially was approaching the story as a movie "about a guy who had a wife and a mistress and that they lived together." However, her perspective changed when she learned that Elizabeth and Olive continued to live together for 38 years after Marston's death, opening up the idea that it was a love story for all of them.

"That one sentence totally blew my mind, because I was like, 'I'm looking at it all wrong,'" she said. "This is a story about the three of them. They were all in love together. That really opened up the story to me and it became really important to also tell it from the perspective of Elizabeth and Olive and Marston— all three of them— and to kind of tell it as a love story and to try and really ground it and be respectful and investigate what Marston was trying to do and how their lives inspired Wonder Woman."

Marston led an interesting and storied life, and Robinson hopes that, by learning more about the creator's passions, fans will get a better understanding of Diana as well. "People have had all sorts of relationships since the beginning of time and they were really progressive, exciting, incredible people, who I think shared a deep love for each other," she said. "To me, they're heroes in and of themselves."

"I really think it's time for their story to be told and for them to kind of get the respect and admiration that I think they deserve," she continued. "It's their core ideas and core values that really infused this superhero who we all, right now, love." 

Connie Britton and Oliver Platt also star in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, which hits theaters on Oct. 27. If you're curious about Marston's life, though, there is no need to wait to learn more– we already have a breakdown of everything you need to know about the mysterious Wonder Woman creator.