Will a director’s cut or extended cut ofWonder Woman 1984ever be released? It’s one of the many questions we’re pondering these days as we inch closer and closer to the release of the DCEU sequel. Previously, we reportedWonder Woman 1984iscoming toHBO Maxon Christmas Day and thatthe movie’s runtime clocks inat two hours and 31 minutes. Last year,Patty JenkinstoldColliderthere was, at one point, a cut that ran two hours and 45 minutes. This knowledge, combined with the fact that HBO Max has putBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: The Ultimate Editionon its platform, has left us puzzling over the possibility of another cut ofWonder Woman 1984eventually ending up on the streamer.
Collider’s own Steven Weintraub decided to bring up the topic with Jenkins whilein conversation forWonder Woman 1984.After bringing up the subject ofWonder Woman 1984’s runtime, we asked Jenkins whether an extended cut (or, implicitly, a director’s cut) could ever show up on HBO Max or the future DVD/Blu-ray release. Jenkins was firm in her reply.
“No. I wouldn’t even want to,” theWonder Woman 1984director told us. “The reason why is because I grew up with the pacing of films being a little bit slower and I think that’s great. And when I show those movies to my son, there’s no part of him that thinks they’re too slow. When you watchSupermanor you watchRaiders of the Lost Ark, nothing about it is too slow. We’ve gotten pretty quick moving in movies a lot now, but that doesn’t add up to emotion to me. But I’m also a director, so who knows? I may be indulging myself and just playing around in scenes for too long to sustain the movie. Generally, directors do that when you leave them alone.”
Jenkins continued, “So that’s the only difference that I end up having is I would like to take a little more time and have a little more air all over the place in scenes we really had anyway. And that’s it. So, if I aired my longer cut, it would be 15 minutes or 10 minutes longer and everybody would say, ‘I couldn’t tell the difference,’ because it would just be a little bit slower pace across the board so it’s not really worth it.”
Jenkins' answer did not include any details around what had been cut from the version that will hit HBO Max and select theaters in just a few weeks or what footage she would add back in to make the movie a longer cut. Additionally, Jenkins' candor on the topic of aWonder Woman 1984extended or director’s cut should not come as too much of a surprise. Neither an extended or director’s cut ofWonder Womanhas ever been released because, as Jenkins told us in 2017,there wasn’t a single deleted scene. As such, Jenkins seems to be keeping in line with a precedent she set three years ago.
Wonder Woman 1984will be released in select theaters and on HBO Max on December 25. For more from Collider’s recent chat with Patty Jenkins, find out what she had to say about theWonder Woman 1984credits scene.
