Joss Whedon’s Long Lost ‘Wonder Woman’ Script Was Leaked And It’s Really Bad
In 2005, Joss Whedon was recruited to write the original screenplay for ‘Wonder Woman.’ He failed and the project was assigned to someone else. Over ten years later, the details of that failure have been thrown into the highest relief, much to the chagrin of Buffy fans everywhere.
“I hate the fact that I’m so attracted to you, just touching you is overwhelming and I keep hoping you’ll turn around so I can see more of you naked,” says the character of Steve in Whedon’s script to Diana, the story’s protagonist.
And this line is, perhaps, the most feminist of the script.
Poor Whedon, a mere male who certainly can’t help that the Wonder Woman of his dreams is, as he describes her in his script, “curvaceous, but taut as a drawn bow,” probably didn’t think the script would live to see the light of day. Unfortunately, nothing is sacred in this day and age, least of all Joss Whedon’s attempt to tell the story of Diana, Princess of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta.
Thanking the entire universe for not allowing the sexist & terrible Joss Whedon Wonder Woman to ever get made. pic.twitter.com/xZrBsjmVY4
— ✨libby ✨ (@ladylibberty) June 15, 2017
I’m reading Joss Whedon’s original script for Wonder Woman pic.twitter.com/r0NOIrfEew
— Pauline ✨? (@Punziella) June 16, 2017
Superhero fans also used the leaked script as a reason to implore the universe not to allow Whedon to write the ‘Batgirl’ movie script.
me reading joss whedon’s original script for wonder woman and realising he’s gonna direct batgirl pic.twitter.com/bfBaIVKwXZ
— moony (@avxnger) June 16, 2017
If Wonder Woman taught us anything it’s that a woman should be writing and directing Batgirl not Joss Whedon
— Martian Manhunter Jr (@BlckBolex) June 16, 2017
And in case you’re especially devoted to participating in the disparagement of Whedon’s art, read this comprehensive thread on your lunch break.
reading the wh*don wonder woman script was never any fun but after seeing/crying at actual WW it becomes a viscerally insulting experience
— Rave Sashayed (@_sashayed) June 15, 2017
Was the leak of this script part of a grander scheme to replace Whedon as the writer of ‘Batgirl’? Or has Whedon grown up in the years since he described Diana as “middle-aged but very much in her prime”?
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter at @arr_scott
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO