How Catwoman’s Flop Haunted Female Superhero Films for Years
Patty Jenkins opens up about the uphill battle to get Wonder Woman made, revealing how earlier failures like Catwoman and Elektra made studios wary of female-led superhero films.
There’s a fair bit of chat these days about superhero films running out of steam, but not many punters realise just how much wrangling goes on behind closed doors—especially when it comes to stories outside the usual blokes-in-capes formula. The superhero craze didn’t just pop up overnight with Marvel’s endless run of blockbusters. For ages, folks were keen for more of these stories, but it only really took off when studios cottoned on to just how much cash was up for grabs, with the chance to spin out franchises that could rake in audiences from all over the globe.
Still, it’s not hard to see why things played out the way they did. Most of these films stuck to a tried-and-true recipe: a male hero, a world packed with action, and a classic good-versus-evil yarn. Women, if they showed up at all, were usually sidekicks or love interests. When a female character did get her own film, it was only after heaps of back-and-forth behind the scenes about whether it could actually work.
Studio Nerves and Past Flops
That’s not the only hurdle, either. Studios have always been a bit jumpy about backing these projects—not just because they reckon they won’t pull in the same numbers, but because they’ve seen how badly things can go. There have been a few cracks at giving female superheroes their own films, but thanks to dodgy timing, lacklustre scripts, and not much promo, most of them tanked at the box office.
Patty Jenkins, who ended up steering Wonder Woman, knew all about these headaches. She’d seen firsthand how tough it was to get anyone to take a punt on a new vision before it had a chance to prove itself. In a chat with Glamour, Jenkins talked about the earlier superhero flicks that made studio bosses nervous, and how she managed to get Wonder Woman over the line.
“They were all freaked out by all the female superhero films that had failed, the smaller ones that had failed,”
she said.
“Also, Christopher Nolan was making the Dark Knight thing, so I think they were just trying to figure out what they were doing with DC at that time.”
Catwoman and Elektra: The Shadow Over the Genre
It’s no secret that 2004’s Catwoman, starring Halle Berry, was a bit of a disaster, and 2005’s Elektra didn’t fare much better. Jenkins reckoned that getting Wonder Woman made was a real slog, with the project being pulled in all sorts of directions because the studios didn’t trust the process and wanted to try something different.
She explained,
“Even when I first joined Wonder Woman, it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way,’”
adding,
“But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off…. I’m a Wonder Woman fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] from my point of view.”
Jenkins’ Vision and the Turnaround
Things weren’t exactly smooth sailing for Jenkins, especially since the project had already fallen through with another director. Eventually, though, the studio let her have a crack at it her way. She took the risk, stuck to her guns, and delivered the film she’d always wanted to make—one that finally gave Wonder Woman her due and proved the doubters wrong at the box office.