Summary
Despite being one-third of DC’s core trinity and one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, Wonder Woman has had it rough in terms of adaptations. After the classic Lynda Carter show from the 70s and the box office success of her first movie, Diana has struggled to achieve another multimedia appearance that really does her justice. That’s why the upcomingWonder Womangame is such a linchpin moment for the character. In a best-case scenario, the team at Monolith can do for Wonder Womanwhat Rocksteady did for Batman in theArkhamseries.
TheWonder Womangame has been in development for years and details are still relatively scarce. Outside the game featuring the invisible jet, the lasso of truth, several of her supporting cast members, and the return ofShadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System, precious little information has been made public about the game since it was announced way back in 2021. One of the primary settings of the game will obviously be Diana’s home of Themyscira, but the team needs to be very careful about exactly how prominently the island is featured in the final product.
Monolith’s Wonder Woman Can’t Ignore Themyscira, But it Can’t Let It Restrict the Story, Either
Themyscira: Too Iconic to Omit, Too Isolated to Focus On?
Themyscira is the location to include in a Wonder Woman game. Not including it would be as glaring as not including Metropolis in a Superman game. Aside from Steve Trevor and her villains, most of Diana’s iconic supporting cast members live on the island, like her mother Hippolyta and her close friends Nubia and Mala.The Amazons rarely leave the magically-protected islandexcept in events of massive, world-shaking importance. And that’s exactly why it can feel so difficult to write about.
Themyscira needs to be prominent in the game, but its status as a remote island makes it hard for the narrative to include/work around characters that don’t exist on the island. The reason whyWonder Woman is one of the most beloved charactersin the DC universe is because she left the island to help humanity; so much of her lore is removed from that one patch of land in the ocean.
Her classic human allies like Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, and the Holliday Girls rarely make it to the island in stories, and her iconic rogues like Ares, Cheetah, and Circe make landfall on Themyscira on even rarer occasions, usually serving as the climax to a much larger scale story. And that’s not even counting other characters Diana is close to, like Superman, Batman, and the rest of the League. As iconic as Themyscira is, it comes with a lot of narrative baggage that keeps it and the characters who live there full-time very isolated from the rest ofwhat a Wonder Woman story can bring to the table. But there’s still a way that the devs can incorporate the island without tying the story to it too heavily.
The Invisible Jet May Let The Wonder Woman Game Have its Cake and Eat It Too
Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet is already confirmedto feature in the game. While this might initially seem like just a bit of fanservice, it’s actually the key to solving the Themyscira problem. The jet will most likely allow the player to fast-travel between game locations, which would make flying to the island and the various other environments trivially easy. This would let Monolith recreate the island in loving, careful detail, while also affording players the freedom of exploring other environments equally important to the character’s mythos.
There’s no set release date for theWonder Womangame at this time.Monolith’s game has had a troubled production cycle, per reporting, so it’ll be interesting to see what the final product actually looks like. However, Themyscira is not confirmed for the game just yet, and Monolith may have other plans for the title’s setting.
