Wonder Woman 1984 producer explains the movie’s delay

Charles Roven explains why Warner Bros. chose to push Wonder Woman 1984’s release date to next summer.

Fans were disappointed to find out they would have to wait longer for Wonder Woman 1984, after its release date was moved from November 2019 to June 2020. This decision, however, was one that wasn’t made lightly.

Charles Roven, who has served as a producer on several DC Films productions. recently explained the reasoning behind the move to Collider. He revealed that the Wonder Woman 1984 team was always hoping for the film to open in the summer. The reason the film was originally slated for November was that the studio initially wanted a tentpole film to close out the year:

"“We always wanted the date that we are on right now. The studio felt that until their slate for the year before came together—and they had an amazing end of 2018—that they needed to have a big what I call aircraft carrier, a “tentpole”, in [2019].”"

The original date led to a rushed schedules, especially because of director Patty Jenkins’ other commitments. With this, the studio decided to give the film a summer release date, like its predecessor:

"“We had a very rushed pre-production because Patty also did the TNT show and we had a very rushed post-production schedule in order to make the date that we were on, which was November 1, 2019. We were doing it because the studio said they really needed it, and then at a certain point they came to us and they said, ‘You know what, you guys are right. Let’s go back to the month that you guys released Wonder Woman 1 in, and take the extra time.’”"

Wonder Woman 1984 is easily one of the most anticipated films of 2020 and, as such, most would have loved to see Diana make her big screen return this year. But pushing the film to next summer is a shrewd move for a few reasons.

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One reason is that it has and is giving Patty Jenkins and the rest of the film’s creatives an ample amount of time to focus on the production. As Roven mentioned, things would have been rushed if the movie would have come this year. As a result, Jenkins and company may not have been able to give the amount of care and attention the film needed in its production cycle.

The box office also plays a role in this decision. Based on Wonder Woman’s performance in 2017, the sequel would have done well in almost any part of the year. Fellow DC film Aquaman is an example of a tentpole performing well at the end of a year. But the summer months make up the true blockbuster season and can draw more people to the theater.

Regardless, Wonder Woman 1984 has the potential to hit big numbers  at the box office when it arrives on June 5, 2020.