Patty Jenkins defends Steve Trevor’s return on Wonder Woman 1984 with the help of a fan.
Given how iconic the character became when he made his debut in the first film, thanks to the chemistry he developed with Gal Gadot, it was obvious Wonder Woman 1984 would discover a path to bring back Steve Trevor (portrayed by Chris Pine).
Being a big-budget superhero sequel, there was a range of mechanisms for the World War I pilot to make his magnificent come back, but the one established by the creative team tended to split the opinions of many.
After making a wish on Dreamstone, Princess Diana is stunned when Steve turns up in the physical body of some other guy. To everybody else, he appears like Handsome Man, which is officially what actor Kristoffer Polaha is called in the credits, but to Diana’s eyes, Steve is literally standing right in front of her.
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Unsurprisingly, the two of them hop into bed almost instantly, which is where the problems started. Viewers were not satisfied with the problematic overtones that came with Handsome Man being used in such a manner, while the complaints grew much louder over the next few days.
Now, director Patty Jenkins finally spoke up on the contentious plot device, quoting a viewer on Twitter who defended the change by comparing it to the entire body swap genre.
A fan named Dustin Philipson wrote,
I’m linking the Wiki to the Body-Swap movie genre; if you can’t see that Patty Jenkins was playing with that trope, and even intentionally pointing out the problematic nature that all these movies have to skirt around, then I think you need to re-examine a beloved, 80’s fantasy movie like ‘Big’ with Tom Hanks… where he (as a 12 year old in an adult body) has sex with an adult female; making her a statutory rapist by default. Also…
2. The movie implies that if you revoke your wish, then much of the impact of your wish is revoked. Hence, even the sex Diana had with the guy possessed by Steve may have actually been eradicated from the movie’s fabric of reality.
The director virtually nodded in agreement. You can see the full tweet below.
Well, it’s fair to say Patty Jenkins’ got at least one fan who sees the sense in what she was trying to do, even if the vocal majority were clearly not fond of it.
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Chris Pine DCEU Gal Gadot Kristoffer Polaha Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman 1984
Last modified: January 4, 2021
