As the movie "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" continues to film, sources reveal that a Wonder Woman movie is set to release in 2017.
IGN.com reported that Warner Bros. assigned TV veteran Michelle MacLaren to begin development and conceptualization of a solo movie for the comic book heroine Wonder Woman. MacLaren is slated to be director while Gal Gadot will reprise her role after starring as the Amazon princess in "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice," which releases in 2016.
Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder and Zack Snyder will be the film producers. The launch date for the Wonder Woman solo movie has been tentatively set on June 23, 2017.
MacLaren is the person behind successful TV shows such as "Game of Thrones," "The Walking Dead" and "Breaking Bad." The Emmy Award-winner was picked from a list of seven female directors, based on another IGN report. Warner Bros. also reportedly discussed matters with directors Jennifer Kent and Lesli Linka Glatter before hiring MacLaren.
According to Hollywood Reporter, MacLaren will work with the film writers, who remain anonymous at present. They will develop a script for the standalone movie. Having a female director would be a big step for the studio, considering that there are only few female directors who were given the opportunity to work on big-budget films.
Forbes wrote that a "full-on feminist Wonder Woman movie" is required for the continued success of big-budget films featuring female stars and female directors. The current generation is in need for more female superheroes, considering how several films in the past few years have been dominated by male characters like Wolverine, Superman, Batman, Thor and many others.
There are already a number of films that featured good female characters but these can still be classified as B-movie franchises, said Forbes. There isn't a complete big-budget film for an ultimate female superhero in Hollywood yet, except maybe Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games."
Having a standalone Wonder Woman movie would be a giant step for society and the blockbuster film industry in the years to come. Forbes speculates that Warner Bros. specifically selected a female director to tap the female audience in a whole new level.
Gal Gadot then has a lot of pressure on her shoulders because she will define the future of female superhero movies based on how she performs in "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" and the standalone Wonder Woman movie.