Wonder Woman 1984 director reveals the runtime is "tighter" than she would have liked

Patty Jenkins, director of the Wonder Woman sequel Wonder Woman 1984, has revealed that the film isn’t as long as she would have liked. The sequel clocks in at an impressive 151 minutes already, but Jenkins has discussed her reasoning for wanting a longer film.

Speaking to Digital Spy, the filmmaker commented: “The first cut was two hours and 45 minutes. It was just a little bit more of every scene and I, even now, personally would have preferred the pacing of this movie a tiny bit slower.”

She explained: “I grew up watching those grand movies that took their time, I still believe in that, but the modern studio system is very uncomfortable with that, so I ended up splitting the difference and going a little bit tighter than I would like to go, but it's okay.”

Jenkins also added why some scenes ended up trimmed: “We had a problem in this movie because every time we shot a scene, people would improv or pick up some cool shot, and we just had way too much… All the action scenes got longer, all the funny scenes got longer and it was very hard to kill your darlings.”

Despite this, not many scenes ended up being cut from Wonder Woman 1984: Jenkins explained that she’s “meticulous” when it comes to scripts, so every scene is necessary. She also revealed that the cut footage is from Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor’s stroll through Washington DC, in particular a scene where they call for a cab.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.