For some reason, Wonder Woman is having a rather difficult time making a genuine comeback.
Fans of Joss Whedon may recall the arduous struggle he had trying to bring a Wonder Woman movie to life, and just last year, David E. Kelley (Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal), tried to get a pilot for a Wonder Woman series up and running, but NBC passed on it.
Most recently there’s also been another Wonder Woman movie in development at Warner Brothers, which Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive) may be interested in directing.
Now with the huge success of The Avengers, superheroes are about to make a big comeback on TV. Joss Whedon has S.H.I.E.L.D. in development as a series, there’s a Green Arrow series coming to the CW this fall, The Hulk may also return to TV with the help of Guillermo Del Toro, and now CW is also working on an origin story series for Wonder Woman called Amazon.
As Collider and Vulture tell us, this is in conjunction with the CW, Warner Brothers TV and DC Comics, and Allan Heinberg, who wrote for The O.C., Grey’s Anatomy, and Gilmore Girls is working on a script. Heinberg has also penned storylines for comics, including the Young Avengers, JLA, and of course, Wonder Woman.
The origin approach for the story is inspired by Smallville, and it would similarly show how Diana of Themyscira developed and became a superhero. Wonder Woman is also of course slated to be in the planned movie version of Justice League, but whether there will be any synergy or cross-pollination with the show and the Justice League, it’s still too early to tell.
At the moment, Amazon is only in the script development phase, so this has all got a ways before there’s actually a greenlight. And indeed, as Vulture points out, it’s now been three decades since we’ve had Wonder Woman, because the TV show starring Lynda Carter went off the air in 1979. Has it really been that long? Think it’s safe to say we’re definitely overdue for some more Wonder Woman, and here’s hoping she can make it to the finish line this time.
