Christmas comes early for those who had the 2020 release of Wonder Woman 1984 on their wishlist, but they'll have to wait until Christmas Day in order to watch the sequel that has teetered on the verge of being pushed back into the later 2020s.
Yahoo! Entertainment reports that Warner Bros. announced that the second installation into the Wonder Woman series, with Gal Gadot returning to the superheroine role, will not only debut in theaters inside of the U.S. but will be available to watch on HBO Max as well.
“As we navigate these unprecedented times, we’ve had to be innovative in keeping our businesses moving forward while continuing to super-serve our fans,” Ann Sarnoff, chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, said "this is an amazing film that really comes to life on the big screen and, working with our partners in the exhibition community, we will provide that option to consumers in the U.S. where theaters are open. We realize that a lot of consumers can’t go back to the movies due to the pandemic, so we also want to give them the option to see Wonder Woman 1984 via our HBO Max platform.”
With half of the American population still hesitant to return to movie theaters due to the pandemic, Warner Bros. greenlighting cinematic releases for the movie comes as a surprise, but a welcome one to be sure. After Warner Bros. took a gamble with releasing Christopher Nolan's short-of-spectacular Tenet into theaters with hopes that it would lure moviegoers from their homes and back into theaters, the underwhelming ticket sales assured the studio that they needed to secure HBO Max as a safety net and utilize their streaming platform.
Wonder Woman 1984 will place protagonist Diana Prince into the era of the Cold War, pinning her against new challengers such as Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Cheetah (Kristin Wiig), while reuniting her with love interest Steve Trevor (Chris Pine).
Warner Bros. has been the topic of hot debate over the past few weeks after allowing Aquaman actress Amber Heard to retain her role as Mera in multiple upcoming DC Extended Universe films and the firing of Johnny Depp from their Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them threequel. It seems that the decision to release Wonder Woman could be used to win over those who are ready to boycott the studio altogether over. Wonder Woman 1984 will stream and will be released on December 25.