The very first glimpse of Princess Diana in her Wonder Woman avatar in the DCEU featured the superheroine wielding a sword and a shield in Batman v. Superman. Those weapons were also a major part of Diana’s arsenal in her standalone Wonder Woman movie. But its sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, sees Diana fighting evil without the sword or the shield, using only her golden lasso and wrist bracelets. In an interview with CBR, the lead actress of the movie, Gal Gadot, explained the reason behind the missing weapons.
“This is part of the reason to why we decided that she shouldn’t have a sword or a shield. Diana is not aggressive. She’s not there to fight. She’s a peacemaker. Also, she has the higher understanding that people are not bad, per se… We’re all the same. We all have our moments when we don’t do the right thing in order to fill this hole. So she assumes the best out of people, and so her default is always to protect them. She leads by example. So, for her, humankind — they’ll get it. They’ll understand it eventually, but she always will do and give everything she has in order to bring goodness to humankind.”
While most recent animated and live-action versions of Wonder Woman have emphasized her Amazonian warrior background, the original comics for the character portrayed her as an ambassador of peace, who is sent to mankind to teach them a way to resolve conflict without violence. The director of Wonder Woman 1984, Patty Jenkins, revealed how the movie stays faithful to that particular version of the superheroine, by creating a narrative where no one dies, even those who tried to harm Diana while under the spell of the magic stone that is at the center of the story.
“Not one person dies in the whole movie. Which you may or may not notice, but we went out of the way, because if all of these people are under the power of something else, then it’s not their fault. So I loved dealing with that, where, like, you can’t — what can you — you can’t do it! It’s not their fault that they’re attacking you! So it became hilariously entertaining that she got the guy in the car off the road, because his brakes still work. You know, it’s like she said, it always has to be — or no, Steve, we can’t use the sword.”
This emphasis on non-violence has not been well-received by certain sections of the audience, who have complained that the film does not feature enough action scenes. But Jenkins must be commended for sticking to her guts and presenting such a novel superhero story where the conflict is resolved through talks rather than fisticuffs.
Directed and co-written by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman 1984 stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and Natasha Rothwell. The film is now available in theaters and on HBO Max. This news originated at CBR.com.