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Wonder Woman 1984 finally premiered on HBO Max domestically and in theaters internationally. And as much as we thoroughly enjoyed the movie (IGN’s Wonder Woman 1984 review praised it as “exactly the kind of bright and hopeful movie that the character’s legacy deserves”), the movie nonetheless raised some questions from our own. part when the credits finally rolled.
So let’s dive into the biggest questions we had after watching Wonder Woman 1984 and provide the answers we can by drawing on our interview with director Patty Jenkins, the comics, and owning our geek intuition.
Warning: Full spoilers ahead of Wonder Woman 1984!
1. What Happened to Barbara Minerva, AKA Cheetah?
The film features Kristen Wiig’s Barbara Minerva, one of the most iconic Wonder Woman villains from the comics, Cheetah. But even though we saw her finally transform into Cheetah and engage in a climactic battle with Wonder Woman, her story arc ends on an ambiguous note.
Wonder Woman defeats Cheetah by holding her underwater and allowing a sparkling wire to electrocute her. The hero continues to stop Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord, knocking his fallen friend unconscious. After Wonder Woman thwarts Max’s plan, we get one last glimpse of Barbara atop the dam, now looking fully human again. She sits alone and battered by battle, a pained but determined expression on her face.
Considering that Barbara no longer sports fur or fangs, it would appear that her powers are gone and she is back to normal. Then again, we never saw Barbara give up her wish like the others, so does that mean she could still have her powers? Perhaps Barbara held onto some of her powers and can now transform into Cheetah at will, turning her into some kind of cat-man.
“I have my reasons for being ambiguous,” director Patty Jenkins joked during a question and answer session with IGN and a small press group. “And I think his point of view on everything that just happened is not clear. … The truth is that there may or may not be more to come, and the reasons for it. But what happens with Barbara is also complicated. … Even if it was that she rescinded her wish, then what? He returns to his normal life, and now Diana is gone? It would take time and it would be very important to try to finish [her story arc] One way or another. So, there were multiple reasons to do it that way. What if it leaves you wanting more answers? There is nothing wrong with that. “
Since Jenkins felt that resolving Barabara’s relationship with Diana would require more time to properly explore, that may imply that he plans to bring Barbara back for a possible third Wonder Woman movie.
In the Rebirth-era Wonder Woman comic directed by Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, and Nicola Scott, Cheetah becomes something of an ally to Wonder Woman, so if she returns then it might be to fight alongside Wonder Woman instead. against her … after they solve their problems, of course.
2. How does desire really work?
The movie’s rules on wishes are a bit murky, so we’re left with a lot of questions about how it all worked out in the end. Even though Max made the decision to give up his wish-granting power, apparently all the wishes he granted will remain in effect until each and every person decides to give up their wish. So what about the wishes that were not given up?
We already have reason to believe that Barbara may not have given up on her wish, so who can say that other people didn’t do the same? Surely among the billions of people around the world, at least some made the selfish decision to remain as wealthy as Scrooge McDuck or to keep the pet dinosaur they just revived.
And even for those who gave up their wishes, was there any limit to what could be undone? The man who wished for a woman to drop dead decided to give up his wish … but we never saw her get up. Did she die because he quit too late? Do wishes have the power to bring someone back from the dead? For that woman’s sake, let’s hope they weren’t following Aladdin’s rules!
3. What happened to Maxwell Lord?
As we talked about Max, did you suffer any consequences for your actions? The movie doesn’t offer a concrete answer, but we heard the sirens approaching when he was reunited with his son, so we must assume that Max was sent to jail for his catastrophic crimes against humanity. But hopefully he will be able to visit Alistair!
In the comics, when Wonder Woman found herself in a similar situation against Max, she directly killed him by breaking his neck, Man of Steel style. So all things considered, movie-Max came out easy.
4. How did Wonder Woman keep a secret after all THAT?
Sure, Diana Prince has lived the last seven decades or so and stayed under the radar, but since she spoke To the whole world At the climactic conclusion of WW84, wouldn’t the vast majority of Earth’s population at least remember that this happened? And while the Justice League had yet to be established, would at least some of its members, such as Bruce Wayne, not fully recognize his voice when they joined in the 10s? Knocking out security cameras is a good precaution, but communicating with everyone makes that move irrelevant.
5. Who was the God who created the dream stone?
When Diana Prince and Steve Trevor begin searching for answers about Max’s wish-granting powers, they discover that he has become one with the Stone of Dreams, but who created this powerful ancient relic? Turns out he was the god of lies, also known as the duke of deception. However, the movie had bigger fish to fry to explore its backstory, so we never learned more about this evil being.
In the comics, the Duke of Deception was a demigod who served Diana’s nemesis, Ares, the god of war. As his name implies, he was a minor deity of deceit, lies, and manipulation. It may be DC’s version of Dolos from Greek mythology, who was the god of lies and deception. When the Duke was mentioned in the movie, we were hoping Diana would track him down and have another godly fight in the third act, but seeing how that already happened in the first movie, maybe it’s better that she fight Cheetah.
6. How did Wonder Woman make the invisible jet?
Wonder Woman 1984 fulfilled the geekiest wishes of many fans by finally introducing the character’s iconic mode of transportation, the Invisible Jet. The film used the plot logic introduced in the first film to justify how Diana could have turned a jet invisible.
“It’s been a Rubik’s cube that I’ve been trying to figure out since the first movie, how we were going to do it,” shared Jenkins. The “eureka” moment came as Jenkins and co-writer Geoff Johns were pondering it together. “I’ll only remember that moment, when we thought, ‘Oh! It’s the way he made the island invisible! Yes!’ It’s a great, great moment. “
WW84 proposes that Diana has been trying to learn the power her father Zeus used to make Themyscira invisible to the rest of the world, and had discovered it. When under pressure, she uses this new ability to make the stolen plane completely invisible and untraceable, allowing her and Steve Trevor to sneak into Cairo.
“She does not have an invisible jet, but she can make a jet invisible in the world we have now created. So I like that that’s a way to get it from Themyscira, and have that. I’m so excited that that works, ”added Jenkins. “It was a big fight with consumer products, not letting them make invisible airplane things. [to not release collectibles before the movie came out]. I was like, ‘No. I want people to experience it. If they know it’s coming, it will be a disappointment. ‘
7. How can Wonder Woman fly?
Diana Prince finally gets her classic comics ability to fly in Wonder Woman 1984, in a way that is inexorably tied to her first love, Steve Trevor. After his dramatic jet escape, she tells him that flight, like traveling by plane, always makes her think of him, and he tells her that it is “just wind and air.” Later in the movie, after she gives up her wish to have him back, she uses her whip to propel herself into the clouds to gain momentum to stay airborne, and finally realizes that she can maintain that speed … well, understanding that it is “simply wind and air”, we suppose.
We’re not quite sure that a physicist would let this, ahem, fly, but for the purposes of the movie, it’s a good way to tie a new power to Diana’s emotional arc. “I love that she learns to fly in this emotional way, and that that metaphor represents something for all of us, which is that you have to let go and accept the truth and things for what they are. Understand that it is only wind and air. And that’s why I loved incorporating both, ”Jenkins said.
Unlike the invisible jet, Diana maintains her ability to fly throughout the film, at one point even using her whip to gain momentum by riding lightning. This begs the question, why did Diana never fly in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League? At most, we saw her take powerful leaps in the air. But maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t fly in those movies, otherwise Flash wouldn’t have needed to do that slow-motion tapping motion where he helps falling Diana retrieve her sword.
Those are all the biggest WTF questions we had after watching Wonder Woman 1984. Are you able to answer any of them? What questions do you have about the movie? Let us know in the comments.
Joshua is Senior Editor and Article Producer at IGN. If Pokémon, Green Lantern, or Star Wars are high-frequency words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow them on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
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