Wonder Woman is finally here. The iconic female character's first solo superhero movie after roughly ten thousand male-led superhero films has arrived, and it's glorious. But Wonder Woman isn't meant to be just a one-and-done movie. The film fits into the larger DC Expanded Universe (DCEU), which began a few years ago with Man of Steel and will continue later this year with Justice League. Still, Wonder Woman is a bit of an outlier thanks to its setting, so just where does Wonder Woman fit in the Justice League timeline?
Simply put, the film takes place waaay before the events of Justice League, and currently stands as the first film chronologically in the DCEU. Wonder Woman is set during World War I, as it details the first time Diana (AKA Wonder Woman) leaves her homeland of Themyscira and ventures to the outside world. There, she gets caught up in trying to end the war in her fight for good, adopts her Wonder Woman persona (and her Diana Prince alias), and the rest is history. By the time Batman v Superman arrives in 2016, Diana has already been living in the regular world for about 100 years. And since that film more or less leads directly into Justice League, that puts a roughly 100-year gap between Wonder Woman and Justice League.
With such an enormous time difference, that means the Wonder Woman fans will see in Justice League is a fundamentally different character than the one seen in Wonder Woman. The Justice League version has been living in the real world for a long time, her accent has softened a bit, and she's a hell of a lot wiser. Wonder Woman, meanwhile, is an origin story, meaning the character is still figuring out who she is. And that was important in order to make the character relatable, star Gal Gadot told Cinema Blend's Eric Eisenberg:
"It was really important for Patty [Jenkins, director] and I that this character will be relatable. And I think the fact that she's the most powerful warrior, but she can also be vulnerable; and she can be confident but confused; and blunt, but curious. She has so many different qualities to her character that make her (imperfect) and easier for us to relate to her ... She's still Diana [in Justice League], but nowadays she's wiser and more educated about the complexities of life and the world and mankind. But she's always full of compassion and warmth and love for everyone."
Diana certainly evolves a lot between her appearances in Wonder Woman and Justice League, and even though Wonder Woman won't be the first time fans will see the character on screen thanks to her appearance in Batman v Superman, it will be the first time they get to see where she comes from while discovering who she truly is.
