Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins slams Joss Whedon’s Justice League revamp

Patty Jenkins has criticised Joss Whedon’s revamped version of Zack Snyder’s Justice League for contradicting DC‘s other superhero films.

Speaking to CinemaBlend on Wednesday, the Wonder Woman 1984 filmmaker, 49, claimed she and the other directors working on the franchise’s Extended Universe have ‘tossed that out just as much as the fans’.

The hugely-criticised film saw the Firefly creator, 56, reshoot the majority of Snyder’s original film, changing the tone and direction in such a way that Patty didn’t ‘recognise half the characters’.

She explained: ‘I think that all of us DC directors tossed that out just as much as the fans did. I felt that that version contradicted my first movie in many ways, and this current movie, which I was already in production on.’

Patty explained she had been in talks with Zack while he made his version of the film, and knew where Diana Prince would end up so she had a plan to incorporate that into 2017’s Wonder Woman, but seemingly wasn’t able to do the same with Joss.

‘So then, what are you going to do? You would have to play ball in both directions in order for that to work,’ she said of the situation. 

Patty went on: ‘I think that [Whedon’s] Justice League was kind of an outlier. They were trying to turn one thing into, kind of, another. And so then it becomes, “I don’t recognise half of these characters. I’m not sure what’s going on.”‘ 

The director helmed Wonder Woman’s hugely successful first solo outing, and returned to the franchise to create its sequel Wonder Woman 1984, which is now set to be released simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max. 

Last month, Warner Bros. announced that the film would still be released in theatres in the United States on Christmas day, following multiple pushbacks, but subscribers of its streaming service HBO Max would also be able to watch the film at no extra charge the same day.

The move is a departure from the usual supremacy that theaters have in the first few weeks of a film’s release.

The move distinguishes itself from Disney’s strategy earlier this year to force Disney+ subscribers to pay an additional $30 to rent its live-action Mulan remake. 

Wonder Woman 1984 was initially set to release in December of 2019, and was moved up to the month prior to that before being pushed to June 2020 before being delayed due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

That month, the film was delayed further to October, before finally being given a Christmas release date; it will be released in the UK on December 16, and in January 2021 in territories where HBO Max is not available.