Big Brother, Stranger Things 2, and now Diana: for the upcoming Wonder Woman 2, it looks like our favorite Amazon is headed to 1984.
DC Entertainment president Geoff Johns took to social media Friday to release a cryptic promo image for the sequel: the letters “WW84” set on a black background, treated to ominously look like a very broken computer monitor glowing in red and blue. Wonder Woman (and Wonder Woman 2) director Patty Jenkins updated her Twitter banner with the same photo.
The photo definitely appears to confirm reports that after saving the world during World War I (just another day in the office) the film would be taking Diana to 1984. But both Johns and Jenkins were tight-lipped about the update, offering no further context. However, Jenkins has previously said she wants the sequel to take place in the United States, and we have a few guesses as to what kind of world issues Wonder Woman might take on this time around.
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The clear allusions to George Orwell’s 1984 suggest a hard edge to WW2, and might be hinting that themes of authoritarianism and government control will be running through the film. One of the most straightforward options, should we be going with the “war” theme, is that Diana’s heading to the Cold War — 1984 would put her smack dab in the middle of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union.
But there was way more going on in 1984. American researchers discover the AIDS virus, and that creates a real-world domino effect that ripples through the nation’s LGBTQ and low-income communities that we’re still struggling with today. Apple releases the first Macintosh personal computer and an iconic accompanying trailer, which brings us to thoughts of a tech-dominated landscape that only Diana could save us from. The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, and could easily set the scene for the tense international relationship between America and the Soviets, who boycotted the games (and could you imagine the set pieces?). Ronald Reagan wins the 1984 presidential election, which, okay, throws a bit of a wrench into our own dreams of Diana 4 Prez, but could certainly introduce the conservative foreign policy that contextualizes the era's nuclear arms race.
Gal Gadot will return to Wonder Woman 2 as our titular superhero, while Kristen Wiig is joining as the villainess Cheetah. The film is set to be released on November 1, 2019.
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