Wonder Woman 1984 is one of the most hotly anticipated films of the summer this year. With theaters shutting down left and right due to Coronavirus concerns, film studios are being forced to release their new films on the internet mere weeks after their theatrical release. Recently, there were rumors that Warner Bros. is planning to release Wonder Woman 1984 direct to Digital, bypassing a theatrical release entirely. But now Warner Bros. has released a statement confirming that the movie will see a full theatrical run.
Nor has there been a change in the release date of the film announced by Warner Bros. Wonder Woman 1984 is still set for a June 5 release, which under normal circumstances would guarantee a blockbuster summer run for a popular superhero movie, which Warner Bros. is clearly aiming for. Circumstances being what they are, however, it is very likely that the release date will be pushed back if the quarantine imposed on societies across the world brought about by the Coronavirus is still in effect in June, as is being predicted by many experts.
Warner Bros. has a lot of hopes riding on Wonder Woman 1984. Featuring fan-favorite actress Gal Gadot as the titular superheroine, the movie takes place decades after the original Wonder Woman in 1984. According to the trailers for the upcoming film, Diana Prince has become accustomed to living in Man's world, away from her home on Paradise Island. Diana is working in a museum renovating ancient Greek artifacts and moonlighting as her superhero alter ego without drawing attention to herself.
Somewhere along the way, Diana makes friends with Barbara Minerva, who comic fans know will someday become the supervillain Cheetah. Also in the mix is Steve Trevor, who improbably appears to have returned from his death in the original film to get back together with Diana. Rounding out the main cast of characters is Maxwell Lord, a powerful business who hides an even more powerful ability to control minds.
With the hype surrounding Wonder Woman 1984, Warner Bros. is quite possibly looking at a billion-dollar-plus box office haul for the film with a full theatrical release, numbers which are impossible to come by with a purely digital release. That is why rumors of the movie streaming direct-to-video were always difficult to believe before the studio categorically negated them.
With the Coronavirus outbreak showing no signs of slowing down, and no end in sight to the quarantine measures seen around the world, the future of big-budget movies are in grave danger. Production crews working on movie sets have seen a rapid drying up of work as production on most new projects is being halted one by one.
New movie releases are being pushed back indefinitely, and each day, the box-office is setting new records for lowest attendance in history. There is a certain irony in that the golden age of superhero movies featuring the triumph of superpowered humans against any and all odds is being gutted by a new form of menace that has exposed the vulnerability of the entire infrastructure put in place to make those movies. IndieWire brings us this news.