Why Snyder’s Justice League Sequel Plans Ruined Wonder Woman’s Future

Zack Snyder’s original plan for sequels to Justice League would have seen Wonder Woman’s character undermined by a singularly bad story decision.

Zack Snyder’s original plans for Justice League 2 would actually have ruined the character of Wonder Woman in the DCEU. The disparity between the theatrical cut of Justice League and the vision that Zack Snyder originally had for the film – later released as Zack Snyder’s Justice League – is well-documented. Snyder had originally planned out an entire narrative arc for the characters, the seeds of which had been planted as far back as the controversial Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Snyder’s plans for the DCEU’s future included a “Knightmare” timeline – a future in which Darkseid enslaves Superman and turns him evil. Visions of this were featured in both Batman v Superman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, offering an insight into exactly what Snyder’s plans for Justice League sequels might have been. Among the various developments of Snyder’s Knightmare story was the death of a number of heroes, including Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. However, Zack Snyder’s original plan for Justice League 2 saw Wonder Woman die a very different death than the one tease in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Related: Zack Snyder’s Justice League Sequel Plans Superman Wouldn’t Truly Turn Evil

Originally, Snyder’s plan for Wonder Woman in Justice League 2 was for her to die at the hands of Dr. Isabel Maru, better known as Doctor Poison. Though these plans also included her later resurrection (enabling her place in the Knightmare timeline), they actually would have subtly ruined the iconic character within the franchise. Having such a supposedly powerful character killed by a relatively minor villain would have upset the balance of power within the DCEU, relegating Wonder Woman to little more than a supporting hero upon her resurrection.

Doctor Poison is considered something of a B-list supervillain, so having her be the one to best Wonder Woman would have made very little sense. Had Snyder gone ahead with his plans for Justice League sequels, one of the DCEU’s three main heroes would have been bested by a lesser villain, and that would have made her seem far less powerful than either Batman or Superman. This would have effectively sabotaged Wonder Woman’s future within the franchise, as it would undermine her status among the other Justice League heroes (and the audience).

In addition to the identity of Wonder Woman’s planned killer being a disappointment, Snyder’s ideas would also have weakened the hero in another way. The idea of having a powerful hero killed and resurrected was already something Snyder had explored with Superman, meaning that it would have made Wonder Woman’s story a retread of a previously established DCEU Superman idea. Making the DCEU’s Wonder Woman simultaneously weaker than other heroes and recycling her death from a previous Superman arc would have been a particularly cheap way to continue her story.

Ultimately it seems that Snyder’s Justice League 2 will go unmade, and this is for the best. Though his plan to have Doctor Poison kill Wonder Woman works in the sense that she’s at least one of the heroes’ own villains, it doesn’t in the sense that it would be akin to Condiment King killing Batman. Undermining the franchise’s heroes is something that Zack Snyder already arguably tried in earlier films, so its probably a kindness to the DCEU’s Wonder Woman that his version of Justice League 2 won’t be made.

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