Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins: "Marvel had such success doing a shared universe – but that shouldn’t be the status quo"

Patty Jenkins refused to make a Wonder Woman sequel that was just an extension of the first movie. As a result, Wonder Woman 1984 takes place decades later and, while a continuation of Diana's story, will be a different beast altogether.

That ethos is certainly in keeping with DC's recent approach to superhero movies. Aquaman and Shazam! largely did their own thing, Joker was a true wild card, and even Birds Of Prey operated as more of a standalone proposition than a Suicide Squad sequel. And whatever happens with James Gunn’s sequel The Suicide Squad,  expect it to be anything other than the expected. DC do their own thing.

“I love that about it,” Jenkins tells our sister publication Total Film magazine in the new issue. “To me, that’s what superhero movies – period – always were. I think the exception to that was that Marvel had such success doing a shared universe. But that certainly shouldn’t be the status quo. I think you should look at comic books. There’s this huge variety of comic books, and their look and tone and world are radically different. And they don’t always inevitably join together. Sometimes they do, and that’s really fun, and that’s that thing.

“But a lot of times, they have their own run. I’m psyched that DC – and frankly, Marvel’s actually doing it a little bit more now, too, with some of the tone of Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Widow and Doctor Strange – they feel very different in tone. But I love that about DC, and I’ve always thought that that’s a wonderful thing about DC – they were all so different.”

Jenkins was famously linked to direct Thor: The Dark World before leaving the project over creative differences with Marvel. You can read the extended interview with Jenkins – plus conversations with the team behind Free Guy, including Jodie Comer, Reynolds, and Joe Keery – in the new issue of Total Film, available now on newstands and digitally. You can subscribe online here or order a single issue here. Wonder Woman reaches cinemas 14 August.

If you can’t make it to the shops, you can order a copy of the print magazine from this link from Friday. You can also subscribe to Total Film digitally on your tablet, and there’s currently an offer that allows you to get your first five digital issues for just £5/$5/€5. Head to this link to sign up (Black Widow issue available from April 3). Terms and conditions apply, offer runs until April 30, 2020. If you subscribe, you can get exclusive covers like the one below.