This morning James Gunn (Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad), the new DC Studios co-CEO, announced all the projects coming to the rebooted DC Universe. The announcement, available below, included multiple movies and TV series related to all the popular DC superheroes. According to Comicbook, one of the new TV series at work is Paradise Lost, a prequel to the story of Wonder Woman.
The new show will be based on Themyscira, also known as Paradise Island, the home of the Amazons. According to Comicbook, the series will approach DC mythology, and is set to be a high fantasy-inspired examination of the generations of Amazons that came before Wonder Woman, also known as Diana, was born.
Paradise Lost was described as a Game of Thrones-style series, a show that will track the politics and adventures of the Amazons in the years before Wonder Woman came along and changed Themyscira.
According to Comicbook, James Gunn did not reveal any creatives that might be involved with the series, but this new TV show has been rumored to be in the works for a while. Paradise Lost is also the third attempt at a Wonder Woman prequel.
James Gunn described the series to reporters as a “Game of Thrones-type story about the atmosphere of Paradise Island, home of the Amazons and the birthplace of Wonder Woman. And this involves all the darkness and drama and political intrigue behind this society of only women. It’s an origin story of, how did this society of women come about? What does it mean? What are their politics like? What are their rules? Who’s in charge? What are all the games that they play with each other to get to the top?”
A Wonder Woman prequel, called Amazon, had been at work in The CW shortly after the premiere and popularity of Arrow and The Flash. It was being developed by Allan Heinberg (The Sandman, Wonder Woman) with the idea being to replicate the structure of Smallville but for Diana. The show would have focused on her journey toward being Wonder Woman before she got her costume and her mission statement. Sadly, the show never came to be.
Around the time the first Wonder Woman movie came out, rumors swirled that Zack Snyder (Army of the Dead, Justice League) and Patty Jenkins (I Am the Night, Exposed) were interested in creating a prequel series exploring Themyscira before the birth of Diana. This prequel series seemed to be moving forward but the idea of the show died with the exit of Snyder from DC and the commercial and critical disappointment of Wonder Woman 1984.
Paradise Lost is still in pre-production and no release date has been given. In the meantime, explore Themyscira and the story of Wonder Woman in the movies Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 starring Gal Gadot (Red Notice, Death on the Nile) as Diana. The movies are available on HBO Max.