Did anyone read that Joss Whedon WW script from 2006?

[I'm a Fish]

I read some of it a while ago, but I had to stop because he had Steve just, like, guilt tripping Diana about living on a paradise island and made the Amazon's want to sentence Steve to death. Basically he elevated Steve by making Diana and Amazon's look bad.

Plus he made Diana and Hippolyta sword fight for Steve's life. Plus Steve is kind of the POV character and not Diana. Yeah, lets have Pepper be the POV character in Iron Man why don't we.

I know the script is a first draft, but if this is Whedon unfiltered, big yikes.


Now that the Snyder Cut came out, I was curious about what exactly was Snyder's and what was Whedon's and I was not surprised at all that the "Batman calling out Diana" scene was 100% Whedon's. There isn't even a scene like that in the Snyder Cut.

I might not like Snyder's Diana, but I don't think he ever meant to harm her character.

Whedon though, he had a crack at Wonder Woman twice and in both versions a regular man has to wave his higher morality in her face. In Justice League, Whedon might not have been the one to have Diana turn her back on humanity, but boy did he jump on that chance since it was never even mentioned in the Snyder Cut.


But yeah, did anyone else read the script? (Does it get worse than that?)

[Psy-lock]

From what little I remember from it, his script was a disgusting, sexist garbage which had Diana doing a "sexy dance" and Steve fantasising about her kissing the other Amazons. Whedon clearly has some serious issues with women and it's truly baffling that he managed to pass himself off as some great feminist ally for so many years.

[I'm a Fish]

I read a little more for curiosity...

Diana gets called a whore (by a bad guy but still). Steven tells her to shut up and she gets shot will a bullet and passes out for several pages.



Yeah I'm not reading further than that.

[Gaius]

I recall there being something of hubbub about it when the first movie came out as it resurfaced online as people went looking to compare the two and found it wanting to say the least. I tried reading it myself but I don't like reading script formats and not liking what I was reading certainly didn't help. The Steve stuff in particular came off as a worse version of the '09 animated movie and what I feared Steve would be like in the DCEU film.

Given what we heard about the accusations from the Buffy cast and WW's scenes in his version of JL, and the problems Gadot had with those, it certainly puts this in somehow an even worse light.

[Agent 86]

I remember it ended very similarly to Avengers - giant, mechanical flying serpent / eel monster thing/s.

I can’t remember too much else? Was there a bit where she lost her powers and had to go on a vision quest in a jungle or something?

Ultimately, I think Wonder Woman means too many different things to too many different fans for any movie to please everyone. But, Whedon’s version was pretty bad. At least Diana wasn’t described as a super powered 15 year old waif with some kind of impairment (from memory).

[SiegePerilous02]

Whedon writing Steve a the POV character and not behaving like a character women would find appealing but ending up as the love interest anyway sounds on brand for him, unfortunately. He got extroadinarily lucky with the execution of Buffy as a character and I'm willing to attribute a lot of that to Gellar and the other writers being a good combo with him. Since then, he hasn't been able to write a convincing narrative for a female hero nor a love interest for said hero. We had the ship teasing between Bruce and Natasha, and the original plan in Firefly was for Inarra to get gang raped by Reavers so Mal could learn a lesson about respecting her or something.

issues with the age difference aside, I think the Buffy/Angel ship works for me largely because the character writing for Angel was down to David Greenwalt and not left entirely up to Joss. That's how we get someone like his Steve.

[Primal Slayer]

I think as far as his writing for Diana in JL...I was fine with it. I actually enjoy that she wasnt for brining back Superman and challenged Bruce.

His actual WW script though? Was bad. Esp considering this is the man who wrote Buffy. He didnt get the character.

[I'm a Fish]

Whedon writing Steve a the POV character and not behaving like a character women would find appealing but ending up as the love interest anyway sounds on brand for him, unfortunately. He got extroadinarily lucky with the execution of Buffy as a character and I'm willing to attribute a lot of that to Gellar and the other writers being a good combo with him. Since then, he hasn't been able to write a convincing narrative for a female hero nor a love interest for said hero. We had the ship teasing between Bruce and Natasha, and the original plan in Firefly was for Inarra to get gang raped by Reavers so Mal could learn a lesson about respecting her or something.

issues with the age difference aside, I think the Buffy/Angel ship works for me largely because the character writing for Angel was down to David Greenwalt and not left entirely up to Joss. That's how we get someone like his Steve.

Buffy, Astonishing X-men and Avengers 1 & 2 were the only Joss Whedon media I followed. Buffy was the only one that felt progressives, and I'm sure it's not his input alone that allowed that show to be what it was.

Astonishing X-men and Avengers are both fine (except the Hulk x Black Widow ship is so "why?") Despite all that, I didn't find myself too surprised when people started coming out against him.

And I guess having Steve be the POV was his workaround for the "Wonder Woman isn't relatable" nonsense that people who don't read the comics insist is a flaw the character has. Obviously I don't know Whedon, but something about his Steve always struck me as who Joss Whedon really is. He's writing the most well know female hero on Earth, and his go-to is to constantly ridicule her, which (from what people have said about him) sounds like the real Whedon.

[I'm a Fish]

I think as far as his writing for Diana in JL...I was fine with it. I actually enjoy that she wasnt for brining back Superman and challenged Bruce.

His actual WW script though? Was bad. Esp considering this is the man who wrote Buffy. He didnt get the character.

Yeah, in both JL movies I found myself saying "don't revive Superman, bait Steppenwolf instead." Especially since it was used as a plot device for Steppenwolf getting the box to begin with. They could have taken Steppy out themselves and revived Sups after.

[Primal Slayer]

Even in Snyders version (cant remember fully if its in Whedons), he still has her state that she isnt over Steves death and is still learning to deal with it. Nearly 100 years and she's still moping for him.

And I hated the "I belong to no one" line as opposed to Whedons more "get over yourself" or something to that degree.

[Gaius]

Whedon writing Steve a the POV character and not behaving like a character women would find appealing but ending up as the love interest anyway sounds on brand for him, unfortunately. He got extroadinarily lucky with the execution of Buffy as a character and I'm willing to attribute a lot of that to Gellar and the other writers being a good combo with him. Since then, he hasn't been able to write a convincing narrative for a female hero nor a love interest for said hero. We had the ship teasing between Bruce and Natasha, and the original plan in Firefly was for Inarra to get gang raped by Reavers so Mal could learn a lesson about respecting her or something.

issues with the age difference aside, I think the Buffy/Angel ship works for me largely because the character writing for Angel was down to David Greenwalt and not left entirely up to Joss. That's how we get someone like his Steve.

Lol, I never watched Firefly but man am I happy now.

And I guess having Steve be the POV was his workaround for the "Wonder Woman isn't relatable" nonsense that people who don't read the comics insist is a flaw the character has. Obviously I don't know Whedon, but something about his Steve always struck me as who Joss Whedon really is. He's writing the most well know female hero on Earth, and his go-to is to constantly ridicule her, which (from what people have said about him) sounds like the real Whedon.

Yeah, there's a scene later in the script where Steve says Diana's more interested in the glory/thrill of being a superhero than actually saving people.

[I'm a Fish]

Yeah, there's a scene later in the script where Steve says Diana's more interested in the glory/thrill of being a superhero than actually saving people.

I know the most famous line in the script is Steve calling Diana a "****ing tourist"....

And this man was supposed to wright/direct a Batgirl movie.

[rayray1127]

I actually struggled through the whole thing a few years ago, and wow..... I'd never never been happy that a Wonder Woman project fell through more than after I finished it. Joss does NOT get =ww at all and it showed in BUCKETS. I actually think David E. Kelley's failed pilot was a masterpiece compared to this, an anti-women Wonder Woman movie...? But why?

I'd love to know what his reasons were for why he chose to write =ww like this... I feel like I'd probably want to deck him if I ever heard them, though.

[Gaius]

I know the most famous line in the script is Steve calling Diana a "****ing tourist"....

And this man was supposed to wright/direct a Batgirl movie.

Yeah, it's a first draft obviously but I'm struggling to think of an actor who could deliver that line and for me not to not want Diana to sock him the saw in the jaw after that.

[WonderLight789]

Sadly he is far from the only writer that portrays WW as the loser or the pushover in her own stories, while a different character takes the POV role. And the fact DC allows these writers to actually write her solo material, tells you all you need to know about how much her label ''respects'' the character.