Off My Mind: Wonder Woman's TV Show Postponed

What does this delay mean for the character?

By Tony 'G-Man' Guerrero | Jan. 10, 2011

Wonder Woman is never able to catch a break. Many were surprised when it was announced that there were plans for a Wonder Woman television show headed by David E. Kelley. Wonder Woman is a great character but she has a hard time getting the respect she deserves. I wondered what angle Kelley would take with the character in bringing her back to the small screen. Unfortunately, news broke Friday that we won't be seeing a Wonder Woman television show any time soon.

The main reason being cited is a deal couldn't be reached with any of the networks. The CW seemed to be the perfect choice but apparently they couldn't afford it. Fox and ABC passed on it. With Disney owning ABC, there was no way it could happen there. CBS and NBC weren't sure and passed as well.

Basically what we're hearing is the license fee the networks would have to come up with was too much. Is that really the case or is there some other reason?

Which version would we have had?

I get the impression that people are scared of Wonder Woman. How many times have we heard about progress being made for a Wonder Woman live action movie only to have it fall apart quickly? Despite the well made and well received Wonder Woman animated movie, reports stated that sales were too low to guarantee a sequel. Wonder Woman has been an iconic character for decades but it feels that even DC Comics is unsure what to do with her at times.

The argument might be made that female characters can't hold their own. This isn't a problem for Jessica Jones as she's getting her own show next Fall. I've also been thinking, which would make a better weekly television show, Wonder Woman or the Hulk? How much smashing will the Hulk being doing on television without making the budget go through the roof? I think a Wonder Woman television show would almost be easier to make.

Is a Wonder Woman television show cursed before it even gets made? Are network executives scared to take her on? There is still some hope. It was mentioned that the timing was bad when the project was being shopped around. It's interesting that there wasn't any mention of last month's report that David E. Kelley had decided to work on another project first. Perhaps that was after he already knew this one was troubled.

I'd really like to see a Wonder Woman TV show. We know there is a demand for comic characters on screen. Smallville has managed to last ten seasons. We're currently seeing shows like No Ordinary Family and The Cape (which may work better and be cheaper since they aren't based on licensed characters). Trying to sell Wonder Woman is the problem. The higher ups need to be convinced that the cost of the show would be worth it. Granted, we've seen some questionable adaptions of other comic characters in the past but if done correctly, Wonder Woman could work. We'll have to see if the networks ever come around or if the timing ever gets better.

Do you think a Wonder Woman show could work or is it for the best that it's been shelved?

107 Comments

Baron_Emoon Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:09 a.m.

Do you think it's a stigma attached to her based upon the old show?

jubilee042on Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:12 a.m.

the new costume because its more realistic and practical and it should be made because i want tone of the best representatives of women in live action

HaHaManHVon Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:21 a.m.

I honestly feel like Wonder Woman is just one of the hardest characters to handle just right. I mean, you can see this from the comic, where countless writers have failed to truly capture her character properly. That's only magnified when it comes to animated features, TV shows, and of course, movies. If they got a solid creator from her past like Greg Rucka or George Perez, she might stand a better chance

G-Man staff is online on Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:24 a.m.

@HaHaManHV: But even when you've have kick ass writers on the comic, people don't read. I don't know if some people don't want to be seen buying a Wonder Woman comic? I can't believe that would be the problem. Also adapting the comic to live action could be tricky.

CrimsonAvengeron Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:40 a.m.

I think an animated show would work better than live-action because it's cheaper and you don't need an actress that resembles the character. Though if they did a Live-action show they would have to go with the new look, though I'm worried whether or not they would be able to find a good actress who is both beautiful and tough.

kapitein_zepposon Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:44 a.m.

I guess Hollywood and television are having a hard time figuring out superheroes. Remember these are the not-so-creative people who run the show. They notice that “non-costumed” shows and movies seem to do really well : Heroes, Hancock, Smallville ... Whereas Superman Returns bombed. The square peg being Batman, but since Batman wears black leather it’s non-costume territory.

The lesson for today : people want dark and gritty superheroes, with toned down costumes in dark alleys.

And then we get to Wonder Woman, Paradise Island , the stars and stripes bathing suit, Greek Gods and all that.

Executives must be terrified out of their minds about this … Is it Xena ? Is it supposed to be funny ? Can we make it funny ? But the audience wants dark and gritty and no costumes and she is a princess, where is the black leather ? Dark Alleys ? Cheetah ? * POP *

By now secretaries are finding men in suits on the floor, twitching and drooling, broken forever by the evil that is Wonder Woman …

Face it, the world is not ready for Wonder Woman.

CaptHowdyon Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:45 a.m.

It's DC's greed man. WB is a partner/owner of DC and they can cut them a licensing deal (how about some revenue sharing instead to get this done)? DC is horrible at cross promotion. Look at how much sales of Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim and such do when there are multiple media platforms for a character/property.

DC wants all their money up front and doesn't look at the big picture, i.e. popularity of the property increases due to reaching a wider audience, etc.

.. and they can't for the life of them wonder why they are always second best in popularity... they aren't going to gain a younger following for their characters in just comic books! That's why DC comic fans are mainly all old men... other than the bat stuff because the movies helped introduce a whole new fan base!

hitechlolifeon Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:48 a.m.

While I think a WW show could work really well there's definitely a cringe factor when it comes to the character. She's very kitschy on the surface. The best way to reintroduce her to a TV audience would be to not name it WW outright and let people discover the character on their own. A way to do it would be to use a younger, inexperienced Diana. Kinda like the JLU cartoon version via Buffy. (I'm certainly not asking for a Smallville or the current JMS take.).

Another essential ingredient is well written humor as Gail Simone has proven! Actually,Simone is possibly an essential ingredient herself.)

Sydpart2on Jan. 10, 2011 at 6:55 a.m.

I'd watch a WW show if it were done right...I'd watch a WW movie if it were done right...I loved the animated one they put out in 09, just not sure how you could really do a live action one...

chalksharkon Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:03 a.m.

Just give it to Bruce Timm & run Wonder Woman as an animated series. Then, it'll work brilliantly.

GundamHeavyarmson Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:10 a.m.

It seems like Wonder Woman, even though she is the most recognizable female superhero, is a really hard sell. It seems that superheroes need to be dark, grim, and gritty in order to work well on television or film. Kind of how like the Cape is Batman with half the calories. Superheroes that have more of a sunny disposition (other than spider-man) dont seem to work. Wonder Woman has always came off to me as a mostly positive character, which is a turn off to an increasingly cynical audience.

difficluson Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:13 a.m.

Wonder Woman is risky, i guess like you said they fear they won't be a demand for a story about a woman in hot shorts with a cowboy whip that makes people tell the truth. I'm not sure how a wider audience will accept her story.
@kapitein_zeppos said:

"
I guess Hollywood and television are having a hard time figuring out superheroes. Remember these are the not-so-creative people who run the show. They notice that “non-costumed” shows and movies seem to do really well : Heroes, Hancock, Smallville ... Whereas Superman Returns bombed. The square peg being Batman, but since Batman wears black leather it’s non-costume territory.

The lesson for today : people want dark and gritty superheroes, with toned down costumes in dark alleys.

And then we get to Wonder Woman, Paradise Island , the stars and stripes bathing suit, Greek Gods and all that.

Executives must be terrified out of their minds about this … Is it Xena ? Is it supposed to be funny ? Can we make it funny ? But the audience wants dark and gritty and no costumes and she is a princess, where is the black leather ? Dark Alleys ? Cheetah ? * POP *

By now secretaries are finding men in suits on the floor, twitching and drooling, broken forever by the evil that is Wonder Woman …

Face it, the world is not ready for Wonder Woman.
"

Wow this nailed the nail on the head!

Doctor!!!!! is online on Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:20 a.m.

The world is not ready for the all powerful....... WONDER WOWAN! (Bling Blang!)

Soldier zeroon Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:21 a.m.

I don't really know if a WW show could work. Opposite to her male colleagues (Batman and Superman) the universe of characters surrounding Diana lacks a proper level recognition outside the kingdom of comic book fans. Just for the sake of example, my father was never big about comic books, but even he knows about Luthor, Lois Lane, Gordon or the Joker. Ask a not-fan about Diana and you'll get some big puzzled expressions.

This makes the character difficult to use and/or write, since unless one is willing to try a massive storyline about the Greek Gods (liek George Perez did) it's really hard to do anything effective with the character. Plus no network will ever touch a Greek Gods based storyline with a female lead, for fear of the Xena factor.

Finally there are two extra elements that makes WW hard to handle. First of all sexuality, aside from the obvious bathing suit issues, Diana was born on a island populated only by extremly beautiful immortal women, there is enough here to cause stuppid homophobic accusation flying. Second and most important WW was supposed to be a different kind of hero, she wasn't supposed to simply run around beating people up, but she was supposed to try to make a significative positive difference in the world. Not just doing good, but inspiring others to do so, which is quite hard to handle in an action TV format.

Blindside002on Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:26 a.m.

There are so many characters that are hard to handle, most of them sadly are female characters because the demo for most comic book readers and the people who go to see Superhero movies are usually males from the age of 15-30. I've asked many of my friends who are females, even ones who read comics already, about female characters are sadly most of them don't even care to read about them. They have to be done just right and most of the time are the hardest to market, which makes it a task most people aren't up to because they would rather take the easier one like Batman who they don't really have to market and know will make the profit they desire.

Bottom line, as much as I hope a movie or series goes through and gets a lot of attention with a female superhero like Wonder Woman, I don't think it will happen soon because people just aren't ready for it and may never be.

Mainlineon Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:39 a.m.

Assuming Deadline is accurate, the news isn't that negative. There are only three big national networks with Fox a distant fourth and the CW barely a competitor. ABC is developing Marvel properties and NBC is only temporarily in flux. I guarantee that the licensing fee and Kelley's salary could be waived and the CW still wouldn't be able to afford the show nor would it fit their demographic, look at their lineup: 90210, Gossip Girl, Hellcats, One Tree Hill, Life Unexpected, Vampire Diaries... my skin started to ooze Neutrogena just typing that list. Even their genre programming- Smallville, Supernatural, Nikita- are bottom basement budgeted compared to an action adventure series on any of the Big Three. WBTV more or less screened Fox first, but for reasons similar to CW they'd never carry this show.

So the only network to actually judge the show on its merits- not politics or production costs- was CBS and they were split. Yeah, it wasn't a slam dunk, but it also wasn't a wholesale rejection.

What we can glean from this is that Kelley's vision was ambitious and expensive- beyond the budgets of CW and Fox- and at least appealing enough to get half of CBS excited, despite having a lineup lacking scifi genre TV (a Tuesday sitcom block, reality TV, and procedurals)... which is nothing to sneeze at. Additionally, that the vision was sufficiently clear not to be compromised in order to accommodate said networks. That, to me, is not necessarily a bad thing... just a timing issue.

When NBC's program director gets settled they might be the ideal network for a flashy franchise like Wonder Woman having consistently invested in genre shows like Heroes, Chuck, The Cape, etc. If they pass, then they might have to rethink the vision but it might be tough to let go of Kelley's having already paid for it and it actually managing to generate some interest.

KNIGHT SAVIORon Jan. 10, 2011 at 7:41 a.m.

yes.......a Wonder Woman TV show can work

Mainlineon Jan. 10, 2011 at 8 a.m.

@difficlus said:

" Wonder Woman is risky, i guess like you said they fear they won't be a demand for a story about a woman in hot shorts with a cowboy whip that makes people tell the truth. I'm not sure how a wider audience will accept her story. "

How do you explain the success of "Lois and Clark" or "Xena"? Or how would you summarize "Lost" without sounding insane? Audiences aren't so hung up on the implausibility of tropes that it prevents them from accepting a concept- particularly one as iconic as Wonder Woman.

Sure, even Superman gets the "why the briefs on the outside" question endlessly but if you removed them people would yell "where are they?!" because ultimately "He's Superman" is all it takes to explain the costume. It's a self-resolving dilemma simply because Wonder Woman is so well known... you never ask people in the Halloween costume "Why are you wearing a tiara?" or "Why so much skin?" the answer is because she's Wonder Woman... the concept has become definitive. Audiences don't go to a Jackie Chan film and then wonder why he doesn't mow down the badguys with a Rambo-styled M60 instead of kung-fu.

That doesn't mean viewers and critics won't feign issues and raise them because they're easy pot shots, but it isn't an actual barrier. Genre films routinely kill at the box office and bear log-lines far crazier than "an Amazon comes to man's world". I'd give audiences more credit, they can handle tropes so long as you deliver on the fundamentals like story, character, and production.

Gambler moderator is online on Jan. 10, 2011 at 8:02 a.m.

The Birds of Prey had a freakin T.V. show but Wonder Woman cant get no luv? Does anyone remember Xena and how popular a show that was? It was almost a perfect Wonder Woman adaptation. So why the hesitation? I'm not buying money being an issue.

Joe Venomon Jan. 10, 2011 at 8:05 a.m.

Remember Zena! this could have been the new Zena and I would have enjoyed watching that, but I am pretty sure they were considering a Smallville approach and that's just not something I want to watch right now I honestly don't blame networks for turning the show down.

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