Patty Jenkins resurfaced on social media Tuesday and denied walking away from “Wonder Woman 3.”
Last week, multiple insiders told TheWrap Jenkins had walked off the “Wonder Woman 3” project after rejecting studio notes on the treatment she had submitted. TheWrap stands by its reporting.
“When there started being backlash about WW3 not happening, the attractive clickbait false story that it was me that killed it or walked away started to spread,” Jenkins said in a statement posted on Twitter. “This is simply not true. I never walked away. I was open to considering anything asked of me. It was my understanding that there was nothing I could do to move anything forward at this time. DC is obviously buried in changes they are having to make, so I understand these decisions are difficult right now.”
Jenkins added: “I do not want what has been a beautiful journey with WW to land on negative note. I have loved and been so honored to be the person who got to make these last two Wonder Woman films. She is an incredible character. Living in and around her values makes one a better person every day. I wish her and her legacy an amazing future ahead, with or without me.”
Representatives for Jenkins did not respond to requests for comment on TheWrap’s story last week. Warner Bros. reps also declined to comment.
Jenkins’ exit came as James Gunn and Peter Safran have been settling into their new roles as co-CEOs of DC Studios and plotting an extensive multiyear plan for DC films, TV shows and games that they are expected to present to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav this week.
Although Gunn and Safran have been given a mandate to reshape the DC landscape, Warner Bros. Discovery has “ongoing enterprises” that “nobody was going to mess with,” according to one insider. This included Matt Reeves writing a sequel to the Robert Pattinson-led “The Batman,” J.J. Abrams’ Black-led “Superman” from Ta-Nehisi Coates, Todd Phillips’ “Joker 2” and Jenkins doing “Wonder Woman 3.”
Jenkins turned in her treatment for “Wonder Woman 3” to the studio the week before her exit, according to the insiders, who added that Warner Bros. Film Group co-chairpersons and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy didn’t think the treatment worked and decided not to move forward with the film in its current iteration. Gunn and Safran, who had nothing to do with the decision, also agreed with De Luca and Abdy that the treatment didn’t work, according to insiders.
De Luca and Abdy spoke to Jenkins first and communicated that they didn’t get the treatment, didn’t think it was the right direction for the franchise and asked Jenkins if she would consider pitching something else for the IP in another direction, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap.
According to one insider, Jenkins refused and let De Luca and Abdy “know that they were wrong, that they didn’t understand her, didn’t understand the character, didn’t understand character arcs and didn’t understand what Jenkins was trying to do.” To underscore her point, according to the first insider, Jenkins sent an email to De Luca that ended with a link to the Wikipedia definition of “character arc.”
Jenkins, who hadn’t posted on social media in more than six months before Tuesday, was told that if she wanted to come back and pitch a different direction for Wonder Woman, the studio would hear it. She stood firm to her vision and responded that if they didn’t want to do her treatment, she wasn’t going to do a different one and would instead just move on to her next film. Jenkins especially didn’t want to hear what newly installed DC chiefs Gunn and Safran had to say, an insider said, even though they had nothing to do with decision to not move forward with her version of “Wonder Woman 3.”
News of the demise of “The Wonder Woman 3” surfaced last Wednesday, when the Hollywood Reporter noted the project was not moving forward and was considered dead — but that De Luca and Abdy had informed Jenkins of the decision. The report said the move was part of the wider consolidation plan by the new DC Studios heads.
