Wonder Woman 1984’s Fight Scenes Were Inspired by Cirque Du Soleil Performers

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins says that Diana Prince’s more feminine and graceful fighting style for the sequel is inspired by Cirque Du Soleil performers. The first Wonder Woman film, which came out in 2017, was the first female-led superhero film since 2005, when Jennifer Garner’s Elektra movie came out, and the first for the DCEU. It was also the first studio superhero film to be directed by a woman, a milestone that’s been a long time coming. The movie, led by actress Gal Gadot as the title character, was a huge critical and box office success.

It then came as no surprise when DC announced a sequel was in development. Wonder Woman 1984 takes place 66 years after the first film, and features new cast members Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal, playing Barbara Minerva aka Cheetah and Maxwell Lord, respectively. It also includes the return of Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor, who sacrificed himself at the end of the first film to help Diana defeat Ares. It’s unclear how his return will be explained in the upcoming sequel.

In the Wonder Woman 1984 cover story in Empire Magazine (via Digital Spy), it’s revealed that Diana has changed a lot since we last saw her, and that includes her fighting style. Jenkins spoke about her goal to give Diana a more feminine combat style in the new film to match that of the film’s villain, Cheetah. She told the magazine how aware they were of men’s fighting style when designing Wonder Woman 1984‘s fight scenes. “We were mindful of that. I don’t want to be trying to look like a man. We need to fight like women.” One reason this was a focus for her is because Diana and the Amazons don’t fight to kill or achieve victory like men, they fight to protect, and she wanted to highlight that difference.

The specific fighting style for Wonder Woman in the sequel finally began to take shape when Gadot and Jenkins went to see Cirque Du Soleil together. The show, and the way the performers moved, sparked an idea within Jenkins, and Diana’s new fighting style was created. Gadot was a bit wary, not knowing if she’d be able to move like them, but her director assured her she’d be fine, telling her, “‘Don’t worry, you never know how you do it until you do it’.”

Wonder Woman 1984 was initially scheduled to come out in theaters on December 13, 2019. But once Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker announced their December 20, 2019 release date, Warner Bros. decided to move the film up to November 1, 2019. It stayed at that date for a while, before Warner Bros. delayed it half a year to the release date we are most familiar with, June 5, 2020, emulating the summer release that brought so much success for the first film. This delay might’ve been a mistake, though, as the film is now further delayed due to the coronavirus. Many people are calling for it to be released on VOD, but Wonder Woman 1984 is such a monumental blockbuster event that it’s worth waiting to experience it in theaters. The new release date is August 14, 2020.