Wonder Woman Fans Just Got The News They've Been Waiting For

Just days ago, we speculated that Wonder Woman would continue as a franchise at Warner Bros. regardless of whether or not Patty Jenkins signed up for a third tour of duty. The Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 director had expressed some disenchantment with the studio after a well publicized pay equity dispute and the abrupt decision to stream her latest film free of charge during its theatrical window. At the time, the first weekend box office reports for Wonder Woman 1984, which was simultaneously released on HBO Max, had yet to come in, but now that we have the numbers, Warner Bros. is full steam ahead on Wonder Woman 3 and Jenkins both.

Thanks to the pandemic and the dual release strategy, Wonder Woman 1984 didn't score anywhere near the first-weekend box office receipts that the original Wonder Woman enjoyed; that said, the film's $16.7 million domestic and $85 million worldwide take was enough to utterly dominate the pandemic box office rankings, inspiring Warner Bros. to set the inevitable threequel in motion posthaste.

Warner Bros.' parent company WarnerMedia neglected to provide any specific viewing statistics from the direct-to-consumer play in its weekend press release, though the company did note that, "Wonder Woman 1984 broke records and exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics in its first 24 hours on the service, and the interest and momentum we're seeing indicates this will likely continue well beyond the weekend."

Sounds like somebody over there feels vindicated.

Per the press release, Warner Bros. Pictures is set to "fast-track" development on the Wonder Woman threequel, and despite recently being on the fence about her own participation, Patty Jenkins is apparently attached to write and direct. Less surprisingly, Gal Gadot is set to reprise her role as Diana Prince for the fifth DCEU film in a row (a streak that started with Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).

No word yet on whether or not Warner offered Jenkins its assurances that the theatrical window for Wonder Woman 3 would remain inviolate, but we're guessing that no promises were made to that effect.