Arrow Producers Talk New Wonder Woman Project

Over the past few years, rumors of a new Wonder Woman TV show have been everywhere.  It seems like the perfect time to bring back one of the most famous female superheros too, especially with the current popularity of the genre.

Early last week, it was reported that the CW might be interested in bringing a Wonder Woman prequel to the small screen. Titled Amazon, this show would be centered around Diana of Themyscira before she became a superhero.

Ideally, this would have great crossover potential with the CW’s other new comic book adaptation, Arrow, which is slated to premiere Wednesday, October 10 at 8pm EST.

Arrow follows the vigilante adventures of Green Arrow, a young billionaire playboy who, after being shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years, returns home a changed man with a vow to fight evil. Sort of a Gilligan’s Island meets Batman, if you will.

Is there room on the network for two DC superhero shows though? Executive producer Greg Berlanti seems to think so.

“Absolutely! If there’s room for a thousand reality shows, hopefully there’s room for a thousand shows like this. My hope is we’re successful enough that we’re all on the air together, that’d be great.”

Of course, Amazon isn’t even in production yet, so plans for cross promotion between the two shows might be putting the cart before the horse just a little bit.  Still, Marc Guggenheim can’t help but be enthusiastic about the possibility.

“It harkens back to the years of my childhood where you had The Six Million Dollar Man and Wonder Woman and all these superhero-like genre shows all on the dial and all you had to do was change the channel. I think there’s totally room for both shows. It would be fun to share a night with them; the CW programs two hours a night and that’d be a pretty kick-ass night of television.”

One thing producers are less gung-ho about is the idea of a Wonder Woman cameo on Arrow.  From all the promotional material released for the show, it seems like it’s taking a darker, grittier, Nolanesque approach to the comic, taking away some of the more camp elements and grounding the show in reality.

Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explains:

“Our show definitely takes place in a much more realistic world. There’s no superpowers, superheroes and aliens. With Wonder Woman, Diana of Themyscira, there are superpowers. I don’t foresee crossovers but one of the great things about superheroes is that they’re constantly being reimagined. There’s the Adam West and Christopher Nolan versions of Batman and one doesn’t obviate the other. The Lynda Carter version was great and now the CW is hopefully developing another wonderful version that will be a nice compliment to Arrow.”

While the plan is to create a re-imagining of the Woman Woman character, it seems like it would be a mistake to try to put her feet to firmly on the ground.   The supernatural elements of Wonder Woman are a huge part of who she is, and they don’t necessarily gel with the approach Arrow is taking.

So, while I would be hesitant to anticipate two much overlap between the shows themselves, the CW looks poised to create a winning block of superhero programming which should interest fans of the genre.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter