Here’s what went into creating the DCEU’s biggest success.
In 2017, Wonder Woman took the world by storm. The DCEU had gotten off to a rocky start, with Man of Steel getting a lukewarm reception, and both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad opening to jeers from critics and fans alike, despite being hits at the box office.
The DCEU looked like it was in dire peril in the summer of 2017. Up until its release, many moviegoers thought that Wonder Woman was going to suffer from the same problems as its predecessors.
Thankfully, these fears were one-hundred percent wrong. Not only did Wonder Woman get a great reception from fans, but it also became the highest-grossing superhero origin story of all time – until it was surpassed by Black Panther recently – and is one of the most acclaimed superhero films of the last decade.
The story of Diana of Themyscira was so successful thanks to its clever writing, superb direction by Patty Jenkins, plenty of awesome action scenes, and the charisma of its lead actors (Gal Gadot and Chris Pine). And let’s not forget its cast of colorful characters and timeless, yet unique story
As with most movies of this scale, Wonder Woman had a lot going on behind the scenes. Sometimes, getting a peek behind the curtain makes you appreciate just how much hard work and effort went into making a film. Other times, it just spoils the magic. Either way, it changes everything!
Here are 20 Behind-The-Scenes Photos That Change Wonder Woman.
Not So Tough Warrior Women
Wonder Woman was a movie that was filled with powerful female characters. Not only was Diana herself a great fighter and diplomat, but characters like Antiope, Hippolyta, Etta Candy, and Dr. Poison were all memorable and tough in their own right.
Why wouldn’t they be? The majority of them come from Themyscira, an island of Amazon warriors.
In this behind-the-scenes photo, we get to see these powerful warriors in a more timid setting.
Robin Wright (Antiope), Connie Neilson (Hippolyta), and Lilly Aspell (Young Diana) are all smiles as they pose in full costume with the film’s director, Patty Jenkins.
This photo just goes to show that, even if the characters themselves are tough, the actors behind them know when it’s time to lighten up and have some fun.
Steve Trevor’s Fighter Pilot Scene
Steve Trevor was one of Wonder Woman’s many standouts. The World War I pilot is shot down on a secret mission over Themyscira and is rescued by Diana. The two embark on an adventure that takes Wonder Woman away from her seclusion and launches her out into the wider world of Man.
In his first appearance on screen, Steve is being chased down by German fighter pilots over the ocean. After a short sequence in which the character tries to escape from his pursuers, his plane takes catastrophic damage and spirals out of control into the water below.
This picture gives us a glimpse at how the scene was done. Chris Pine sits in half of a prop plane in front of a wall of green screen, its movements being controlled by a mechanical arm attached to the bottom of the plane.
The First Costume Test
Sadly, fans didn’t get to see Wonder Woman’s costume revealed on the big screen in her first film. Instead, the character was introduced in a small but important role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Director Patty Jenkins and DC decided to stick with the same costume (albeit with minor tweaks) for Diana’s first solo flick. That doesn’t mean that there was nothing the marketing department couldn’t do to get fans hyped for the 2017 release!
This photo says it all.
You take one look at Gal Gadot in her Wonder Woman suit, adorned with an elegant cloak, and you just know there was nobody else who could play the character.
The image gives off a vibe of a royal and just heroine, with just a hint of a woman you wouldn’t ever want to cross.
Not-so-ancient Themyscira
A big part of what made Wonder Woman such a smashing success was its incredible cinematography. No matter what you thought of the film itself, it’s hard to argue that scenes like the beach battle and Diana crossing over into No Man’s Land were not a spectacle to behold. This cinematography was further boosted by the fact that a big chunk of the film was shot on location or using physical world sets.
This photo shows us one of the many examples of this phenomenon, depicting three of Themyscira’s fiercest Amazons riding through the city on horses. This shows us that, unlike so many other big-budget movies these days that rely on CGI for everything, almost everything in Wonder Woman was real: The horses were real, as were the armor on the Amazons’ bodies and the wall that they were riding in front of.
The Strength of Diana
There is much debate as to how powerful Wonder Woman is in comparison to the other members of the Justice League. It’s always been known that Diana has superhuman strength, agility, and stamina, but how does she stands in comparison to characters like Superman and Martian Manhunter? In the Justice League film, she ends up taking a direct headbutt from the Man of Steel and just walking it off like it was nothing!
This picture gives us a clue into how Diana’s super-strength was brought to life. In the movie, Wonder Woman is lifting up a heavy piece of debris.
In reality, Gal Gadot is just holding a large piece of Styrofoam that is being suspended by ropes.
The way the actress just casually has her hand under the structure as she chats with Patty Jenkins is the epitome of the Wonder Woman character.
Storming the Beaches
Aside from the epic “No Man’s Land” scene from the film, the beach brawl in the first act of Wonder Woman is probably the most impressive action sequence of the entire film.
After Steve Trevor is shot down by the German army, a small invasion force is sent to Themyscira to capture the spy. Of course, they get way more than they bargained for when an army of Amazons come to meet them.
This amazing scene was no small task to make happen, as evidenced by this photograph. For most of the lead-up to the battle and the actual skirmish itself, a real beach and shoreline were utilized by the director.
It took hundreds of people to film the scene, with cranes, green screen frames, and German soldiers and horses scattered across the set.
Wonder Woman’s Training
She may have only gotten a short amount of screen time, but Diana’s mentor and trainer Antiope (played by Robin Wright) stole the show in just about every scene she appeared in. Sadly, her life was cut short when she took a stray bullet to protect her young apprentice.
While rumors are swirling that the actress will return for Wonder Woman 1984, it’ll take some creative reasoning to explain how she has returned from the land of the deceased.
As a young girl, Antiope trained Diana to be a powerful warrior. This was show through the many trials she put Wonder Woman through as a young girl, culminating in an epic showdown between the two Amazons when Diana was fully grown.
This photo gives us a look at the fight between the powerhouses, with two stuntwomen duking it out while the choreographer watches on, pleased with what he sees.
Cell Phones’ on Armistice Day
In the original Wonder Woman comic books, Diana and Steve Trevor’s story begins during the height of World War II. However, Marvel had already done this idea in Captain America: The First Avenger. Instead, DC opted for World War I.
At the end of the film, Diana gets to celebrate a bittersweet victory. Though the Central Powers (and Ares) were defeated, Diana had lost the love of her life in the process and realized that human beings can be even more evil than the God of War.
In this photo, we see Diana and Etta celebrating Armistice Day while one of the production crew members snaps a photo with his 21st century cell phone.
The Greenscreen Beach
The beach scene of this movie had just about everything one could want from a superhero movie; it had tons of slow-mo shots, epic sword vs. rifle warfare, and was chock-full of raw emotion. Though the Amazons were able to push back the invading Germans, they suffered several casualties and were no longer able to hide. It was also the scene that set the rest of the film into motion!
Though the battle was filmed mostly on location, that didn’t mean that a little bit of green screen trickery wasn’t in order. The background of an on-location shoot almost never agrees with what the director wants it to do; wild animals or even tourists can be distractors in the background of a scene like this.
This photo shows how Jenkins used a mix of on-location shooting as well as some green screen backgrounds to get the perfect shots used in the final product.
Gal Gadot’s Stunt Woman
When it was first announced that Gal Gadot was going to be portraying Diana Prince, audiences were skeptical. The actress had only a few credits to her name and was mostly known for her modelling career; she also beat out many fan picks for the role, such as Jaimie Alexander or Gina Carano. As with the movie itself, nobody could have predicted Gadot would be so perfect for the character!
What if we told you there was more than one actress playing Wonder Woman?
Although Gadot was under the tiara for the majority of filming, even she wasn’t awesome enough to perform all of the stunts the movie required. This is where Caitlin Dechelle stepped in. Dechelle is an experienced stuntwoman who is also a world-class martial artist as well as an aspiring actress. Who else could step in and play such a powerful character?
Texting and Pining
Audiences everywhere fell in love with Steve Trevor. Wonder Woman did an excellent job of inverting the common tropes of superhero lore, pushing Chris Pine into the role of the love interest who acts as an anchor for the human side of the superhero. Fans were in total disbelief that the character decided to sacrifice himself to save the world in the climax of the movie.
This picture depicts Chris Pine (still in costume) in a candid moment between takes.
As he stands around having a conversation with the production crew, the World War I soldier at his side laughs while browsing through his cell phone.
Somehow, it feels like we’re still looking at a picture of Steve Trevor and not Pine.
Steve and Diana’s Not-So-Private Moment
When Diana first meets Steve, she is obviously fascinated. However, it is simply because she has never seen a man before; she only falls for him after they get to know each other a little bit more.
The scene, as it appears on screen, is fairly intimate and private.
Diana is the first one to see the plane go down, and she is the one who pulls Trevor out of the wreckage and to safety on the shoreline. This photo shows just how not private this moment is!
Diana and Steve are getting their photograph taken by a lone photographer and crew members are holding up lighting tools.
Traveling Through Germany
After the epic battle on Themyscira, Diana decides that she cannot sit around idly as the rest of the world falls into shambles. She leaves her island paradise alongside Steve, who takes her to London and gets her involved with the war efforts. This leads Wonder Woman to joining up with a rag-tag team of allies from across the different nations to bring down Ares and Doctor Poison.
This photo gives us a snapshot of some more of the on-site location shooting Wonder Woman utilized. Instead of simply putting the actors in front of a greenscreen, Gadot, Pine, and the rest of the trope are seen on a hilly countryside. As they walk, a camera on a dolly follows them to create the illusion that the audience is walking with them.
A Huge Undertaking
With a superhero as popular as Wonder Woman, you better believe that DC put everything they had into making the movie perfect. Diana was the last of the DC’s Trinity to receive her own film, and Wonder Woman was the first AAA, big-budget female-led superhero flick. Warner Bros. and DC’s film division ensured that they had top men and women on the production!
This photo was taken as a “wrap photo” at the end of Wonder Woman’s filming.
Gal Gadot unfortunately couldn’t do a wrap party, as she had to head right off into the production of Justice League; instead, the entire crew of the final day took a large group photo for social media.
This shows you just how insanely large the movie was. This photo was just for the crew of this location. Imagine how many more people worked on the multiple other locations for the movie!
Amazons Goofing Off
In the DC Universe, the Amazons are an elite fighting force as well as a race known for their talents in warfare and unrelenting grit. With a few exceptions, such as Diana herself, they Amazons are a no-nonsense people who are trained from birth to only do one thing: fight.
That’s why it is so much fun to look at this picture.
It features several of the extras on the Themyscira set, clad in full Amazon gear, goofing off.
They strike a pose that shows that they are just as tough as their fictional counterparts, but in a way that says they don’t necessarily take themselves as seriously as the characters do!
Gal Gadot = Wonder Woman
As stated before, there are few who wouldn’t agree that Gal Gadot and Diana Prince are one and the same. The torch has officially been passed from Lynda Carter (the original Wonder Woman from the ‘70s) to the DCEU’s femme fatale, with Gadot appearing first in the minds of those who think of the character today.
This behind-the-scenes photo shows us just how much alike the actress and her fictional counterpart are! As Gadot walks through the dull backstage of the set full of plain green screen, she lets out a smile that completely lights up the room.
Just like Diana, she brings here bubbly hope and optimism to those around her wherever she may go.
A True Role Model
One of the most iconic things about 2017’s Wonder Woman movie was the fact that it was the first successful female-led superhero movie. Sure, others had tried before with the likes of Catwoman and Elektra, but those films were crashing disasters that pandered to the stereotypical comic book demographic rather than the wider audience as a whole. This was not the case at all with Patty Jenkins’ film.
Wonder Woman finally gave little girls a superhero that they could relate to.
This photo says it all: it shows a young woman who is visiting the set sharing a hug with Wonder Woman herself.
Surrounding her are several other women who had worked on the film, showing her that she too could become involved in this sort of an endeavor in the future.
Doctor Poison without her Mask
Though she was a secondary villain in the movie, Doctor Poison was one of the DCEU’s more memorable villains. She didn’t have a super-complicated backstory or a grey motivation. She was simply evil because she liked inflicting pain on others and took glee in creating new weapons of mass destruction!
Doctor Poison was identified by her creepy mask that covered the scarred half of her face.
This photo was taken during a set interview with the character’s actress, Elena Anaya. It shows that under the mask and deformed makeup she had to wear, the actress herself was just a normal woman. More than that, Anaya has been nominated for and won a slew of awards for her performances in other films!
Diana vs. Ares
Though Wonder Woman was applauded by critics and audiences alike, there was one thing that stood out as being a weak point of the movie: the villain and the climax.
The movie seemed to have a great idea in making Ares not be General Ludendorff, but instead a random member of the British aristocracy. However, the execution seemed a bit lacking, turning most of the climax into a big CGI eyesore and having the villain spout phrases that seemed like they were ripped from the pages of a generic comic book.
This photo shows us how the climax was made. It features Gal Gadot in full Wonder Woman attire taking on an actor in a mo-cap suit. Obviously, this guy would be swapped out for the CGI Ares in the final product.
No-Man’s Land was Freezing
Here it is folks, the most iconic scene in Wonder Woman as well as the entire DCEU. Diana, Steve, and their companions come across a typical trench warfare battle of World War I. Diana, showing no fear, walks out into the open field and takes on the entire enemy legion on her own. This inspires the rest of the troops to charge.
Behind the scenes, it’s a miracle that Gal Gadot didn’t turn into an icicle!
This was another part of the film that was shot on location; this particular scene was shot on an outdoor set in London. The kicker? It was February!
In between takes, Gadot would have to be covered with blankets to protect herself from the blistering winds. This photo shows just how cold it is, with Patty Jenkins bundled up in a warm coat while Gadot wears nothing but her Wonder Woman costume.
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Did these pictures change your perception of Wonder Woman? Lets us know in the comments!
