“It was basically a Donner/Superman film”: Matthew Vaughn Has a Backhanded Compliment for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman That He Believes Made it a Huge Success

Matthew Vaughn shared how following Donner’s pattern of Superman with Wonder Woman made it a hit, and shared how he too wanted to make a modern take on the same formula for Superman

Matthew Vaughn is renowned as one of the finest filmmakers in Hollywood. With spectacular big-screen projects like the Kingsman trilogy, X-Men: First Class, and even the upcoming Henry Cavill starrer super hyped spy film Argylle, he has created a fairly reputed position for himself in the entertainment industry. And considering his fabulous works, his critique of other films is pretty reliable as well.

Matthew Vaughn

That being said, Vaughn recently complimented Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman all the while sharing what he believes made it a huge success: The recreation of the Donner/Superman films as that of Wonder Woman. Something that he initially wanted to do himself but was left rejected with an unfinished project unapproved by the studios.

Matthew Vaughn Believes Donner/Superman Helped Wonder Woman Become A Huge Success

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

In his recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Matthew Vaughn gave DC’s Wonder Woman a backhand compliment, claiming it was Richard Donner’s Superman that helped Gal Gadot‘s film reach the incredible success that it did.

“I think Donner nailed it,” Vaughn said. “‘Wonder Woman’ worked very well because it was basically a Donner/Superman film but reimagined as Wonder Woman.”

Continuing, he shared details about his own unproduced project for Superman which would have been a trilogy and had been scripted and presented by him and comic book writer Mark Millar way before Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel got confirmed.

“I would’ve done a modern version of Donner. Our big idea was that Krypton doesn’t blow up. It does eventually. The dad was right, but he got his timing wrong. When Superman is grown up, suddenly there’s a mass exodus and all hell breaks loose. That was our main idea.”

However, their version of Clark Kent’s story never came to be for a strange reason, even though it could’ve been able to set an incredibly high bar for all the other Superman film creators, judging from the idea presented by Matthew Vaughn.

Matthew Vaughn Shared Why His Superman Trilogy Never Came To Be

Richard Donner’s Superman

During the same podcast, Matthew Vaughn then shared why his outstandingly plotted Superman trilogy, which would’ve honored Richard Donner‘s 1978 classic version of the Kryptonian superhero, never made it even to production.

“Mark and I sat down and plotted out a three-film trilogy, pitched it to Warner Bros. before ‘Man of Steel’… we pitched how to do a trilogy of Superman movies and Warners said they weren’t interested,” Vaughn said. “That’s as far as it went.”

He then shared his take on the rumors about his Kingsman star Taron Egerton playing Wolverine.

“He’d be better as Lex Luthor,” Vaughn said. “He’d be an amazing Luthor. He shouldn’t be Wolverine. I don’t think he’s right for it. You got to really go back to the comic. Hugh is brilliant as Wolverine, but I’d go back to what the comics are… [he’s a] small, grizzly, tough guy. Hugh has made it so iconic that if you go into that version… no. Taron would make an amazing, intelligent villain.”

Although he doesn’t have any ongoing DC projects on the table as of now, Matthew Vaughn is in touch with both James Gunn and Peter Safran. Perhaps fans might be in for a stunning surprise that could make up for the lost Superman project. Perhaps. Perhaps.