Patty Jenkins Reveals Wonder Woman 1984 Could've Been Longer

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Patty Jenkins Reveals Wonder Woman 1984 Could've Been Longer

While already clocking in at an impressive two and a half hours, director Patty Jenkins reveals Wonder Woman 1984 was once even longer.

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins reveals her long-awaited DC sequel could've been much longer than it already is. In 2017, Jenkins crafted a near-perfect solo film for Gal Gadot's Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, which proved to be both a critical and financial hit. Ahead of her recently announced Star Wars film Rogue Squadron, Jenkins returned for Wonder Woman 1984, a new adventure that will find Diana settled down in the decades since her first introduction to the world of man. The emergence of new threats like Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Barbara Minerva, aka Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) pulls Diana back into the fray, along with the reappearance of her long-lost love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine).

Wonder Woman 1984 was once scheduled for release in 2019, but Warner Bros. bumped it to June 2020. That move proved especially destructive, as it put the movie straight into the path of the coronavirus pandemic. Wonder Woman 1984 suffered several more delays before Warner Bros. settled on its final release plan: It will debut both in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day, December 25. With Wonder Woman 1984's release fast approaching, Jenkins has revealed more about her second DC movie.

In a new interview with Digital Spy, Jenkins explained that she prefers to follow her scripts closely, meaning not many scenes typically get cut. Even though she "really barely cut any scenes," for Wonder Woman 1984, Jenkins admitted she could've stretched things out a bit more. "The first cut was two hours and 45 minutes. It was just a little bit more of every scene and I, even now, personally would have preferred the pacing of this movie a tiny bit slower," Jenkins stated. The reason for this, she said, comes down to the movies she watched as a kid:

I grew up watching those grand movies that took their time, I still believe in that, but the modern studio system is very uncomfortable with that, so I ended up splitting the difference and going a little bit tighter than I would like to go, but it's OK.

Wonder Woman 1984's runtime stands at 2 hours and 31 minutes, making it ten minutes longer than the 2017 original. These days, longer blockbusters are more common than they might have been years before; just last year, Avengers: Endgame clocked in at a whopping 3 hours. However, those with lengthier runtimes might run into the critique that the plot is overstuffed, or that things drag in the middle. That's likely why, as Jenkins put it, studios get nervous about longer movies. Still, when a director as skilled as Jenkins has a vision for their movie, it's usually best to let them do what they wish. The situation with Wonder Woman 1984 sounds like a compromise between the two.

Seeing as Wonder Woman 1984 already boasts a sizable runtime, it would be interesting to see what Jenkin's longer cut might have featured. Early reactions to Wonder Woman 1984 have largely praised the movie, so it sounds like Jenkins need not worry too much about losing the parts she did. Perhaps when the film reaches home video, the deleted scenes will be included so fans can decide whether they would have improved the film or not.