James Gunn addresses Wonder Woman 3 furore: ‘We are not going to make every single person happy’

James Gunn has addressed the alleged cancellation of Wonder Woman 3.

The writer, director and producer, who is overseeing the next era of DC films alongside Peter Safran, responded to the claim that plans for a third Patty Jenkins-directed film had been scrapped.

According to these reports, a proposed idea for the sequel “did not fit in with the [studio’s] new plans”.

The claim came one day after lead star Gal Gadot expressed excitement for the character’s “next chapter”.

Gunn, who directed The Suicide Squad, has now waded in on the news, telling his Twitter followers: “As for the story yesterday in The Hollywood Reporter, some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.”

He elaborated upon this by saying that “building the next 10 years of story” at DC “takes time”.

Gunn said he knew “there would be an unavoidable transitional period as we moved into telling a cohesive story across film, TV, animation, and gaming,” adding: “The drawbacks of that transitional period were dwarfed by the creative possibilities & the opportunity to build upon what has worked in DC so far & to help rectify what has not.”

Acknowledging the “fractious” DC fanbase, Gunn warned “we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way”, but reassured these fans that “everything we do is done in the service of the STORY & in the service of the DC CHARACTERS we know you cherish and we have cherished our whole lives”.

Gunn said the fans will have to “wait... for more answers about the future of the DCU”.

“We are giving these characters & the stories the time & attention they deserve & we ourselves still have a lot more questions to ask & answer.”

The duo were hired in October this year, taking over from DC Films boss Walter Hamada, in a move to compete with Marvel over the next decade.

“We’re honoured to be the stewards of these DC characters we’ve loved since we were children,” Gunn and Safran said in a joint statement at the time.

Jenkins’ first Wonder Woman movie (2017) grossed a colossal $823m (£724m) at the global box office, however, the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 (2021) grossed $170m after it was released in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.