Despite Wonder Woman 1984 looking like a breezy, comic book inspired, action adventure, the sequel has instead been met with a multitude of criticisms, even causing a debate around consent thanks to the mysterious resurrection of Chris Pine's love-interest character Steve Trevor. A matter which has now been defended by one particularly ardent fan, even soliciting a positive response from director Patty Jenkins. Now, for those who have yet to see Wonder Woman 1984, look away now because there's some big spoilers coming.

For those who have seen the movie, or those who are still here and just don't really care about it being spoiled, Steve Trevor is brought back from the grave he ended up in at the end of 2017's Wonder Woman and back into Diana's life courtesy of the Dreamstone, an artifact that has been imbued with the power to grant one wish for whoever holds it. The powers of the stone though are very much in the "monkey-paw" style of magic, in that with each wish comes a major drawback that is not necessarily noticed right away. In Steve's case, rather than materialising from thin air, he has essentially taken over the body of someone who already exists, even looking like that person, played by actor Kristoffer Polaha, to everyone but Diana.

The controversy therefore stems from the fact that this other person has been taken over against their will which has led to concern over issues of consent, with the movie also implying that Diana and Steve sleep together following his return. One fan though has come out in defense of these events, positing that the details of Trevor's return are simply director Patty Jenkins' homage to the 80s 'body-swap' trope. The fan likens the scenario to that of Tom Hanks' character in beloved family comedy, Big, in which Hanks' child-in-an-adult-body has sex with an adult woman.

Evidently the fan has the right interpretation, with Patty Jenkins herself responding to the insight with a pretty definitive "Hahaha. Exactly." The body-swapping trope is a beloved trend of the comedy genre, and was hugely popular in the 1980s, as well as being a trope of the comic book genre, making its inclusion in Wonder Woman 1984 ideal. Though whether this aping of the equally disturbing storyline in Big is any kind of defence is still vastly open to debate...

Wonder Woman 1984 picks up with the Amazonian superhero in the 1980s and finds Diana Prince living during the height of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The highly anticipated sequel finds Diana coming into conflict with not one, but two formidable foes in the form of Barbara Ann Minerva aka Cheetah and the mysterious media mogul Maxwell Lord. If that was not already enough for her to contend with, Diana will also be reunited with her former love-interest Steve Trevor, who has returned from the dead under mysterious, and possibly nefarious circumstances.

Directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, Wonder Woman 1984 finds Gal Gadot reprise the role of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen. Wonder Woman 1984 is now available on HBO Max. This comes to us from Patty Jenkins' official Twitter account.