Wonder Woman is a tricky character. She may be part of DC’s holy trinity with Batman and Superman, but lots of audience members don’t know her origin story or who she is as a character beyond “the female one.” Director Patty Jenkins is going to have to do a lot better than that if she’s going to bring Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) into her own, and while audiences will get a first look at the character when she appears on screen in March in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the solo film, Wonder Woman, presents its own challenges.

For example, when exactly do you set the film? Princess Diana of Themyscira is an Amazonian demigod, and that means she can live much longer than a normal person. Batman v Superman is confined to the present day, but Wonder Woman isn’t.


batman-vs-superman-image-gal-gadot
Image via Warner Bros.

A new rumor has emerged saying that she’ll go far beyond the present and all the way back to ancient times before moving to 1916 and finally closing out in the present.In their report, Den of Geek says that this could even be the three-act structure of the film:

 

The first setting will be Themyscira, the idyllic island Wonder Woman has called home since her adventures began in the 1940s.

 

The second period is World War I - the specific year we've been given is 1916, which places it right in the middle of that conflict.

 

The movie will then move to the modern day, where it will tie into the events of Justice League Part One, out at the end of 2017 and also set to star Gadot's Wonder Woman.


They’re also hearing that the movie might pull a Captain America: The First Avenger and have the costume evolve throughout the film.

If this rumor is true (and that’s a big “if”, although it’s not like anyone is going to check two years from now when the film is released), that’s an interesting way to approach Wonder Woman’s origin story, and I’m curious to see where it will place her love-interest, Steve Trevor. Chris Pine signed on to play the film’s equivalent of Lois Lane, and even though Wonder Woman’s story in the comics starts in the mid-1940s, I’m not sure DC wants to treat an A-lister like Pine the same way Marvel’s gone with Hayley Atwell’s Agent Carter.

So if this movie is split into thirds based time periods, then Pine is only in a third of the movie (barring time travel or some nonsense like that), and that doesn’t make a lot of sense. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Wonder Woman opens June 23, 2017.

gal-gadot-wonder-woman-movie
Image via Warner Bros