Gal Gadot has given her clearest account yet of how her era as Wonder Woman ended, revealing that DC Studios initially talked up a third solo movie with her before things quietly fizzled out and the character moved on without her. Speaking on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gadot described a transition that was far messier behind the scenes than the unified new DC Universe branding would suggest, even as she insists, “we’re all adults, and it’s all good” today.
According to Gadot, executives told her they were planning to develop Wonder Woman 3 with her, giving the impression that Diana Prince would survive the jump from the old DCEU into James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU. She recalled being assured that the third film was on the table and that she was part of those plans, only to start noticing “the way everybody else was handled” as the shake-up rolled on, specifically naming Henry Cavill and director Patty Jenkins as examples of situations that “were not handled elegantly.” That vague but pointed criticism lines up with earlier reporting from outlets like ComicBook.com and IGN, which detailed how Gadot was told one thing privately while the new regime quietly steered the franchise in another direction.
To understand why her comments hit so hard with fans, you have to rewind to the chaotic handoff period. In late 2022, Henry Cavill made a surprise Superman return in Black Adam and then posted on Instagram that he was “back” as the Man of Steel, a move he later said had been greenlit by the studio at the time. Not long after, Gunn and Safran took over DC Studios and informed Cavill they were going younger for their new film Superman, prompting Cavill to issue a second statement explaining that, despite the cameo and the earlier go-ahead, he would not be returning after all. Gunn later described breaking that news as “terrible” and “really unfair to him” in interviews, underscoring the human cost of a corporate course correction. Around the same time, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 3 treatment was first put into question under the previous leadership and then effectively shelved once the new DCU slate took shape, with trade reports from Variety and others saying no third Gadot-led film was in active development even as the actress publicly suggested otherwise.
That disconnect became a story of its own. In 2023, while promoting Heart of Stone, Gadot told outlets including CBR and Gizmodo that Gunn and Safran had assured her they would “develop Wonder Woman 3 together” and that she was “in the best hands.” Trade sources quickly pushed back, saying those conversations didn’t translate to an actual greenlit project and that the only confirmed Themyscira-related plan on the new slate was the Max prequel series Paradise Lost. Now, in hindsight, Gadot’s new comments suggest she felt strung along by optimistic early talks that never evolved into anything concrete. She describes never getting a clean, formal “it’s over” moment—just a dawning realization as she watched co-stars and collaborators phased out.
Even so, Gadot isn’t framing herself as a casualty of the reboot so much as someone who has moved on. In a recent interview covered by Deadline, she went further, saying that at this point in her life she probably wouldn’t sign on for a third Wonder Woman movie even if DC called. Now a mother of four, Gadot said the months-long shoots and global press tours required for a superhero tentpole no longer mesh with her family reality, and that checking out from her kids’ lives for that long “doesn’t work for my life anymore.” It’s a pragmatic coda to nearly a decade with the lasso and tiara, from her breakout in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice through the highs of Patty Jenkins’ acclaimed 2017 film and the more divisive Wonder Woman 1984, plus a string of cameos as the DCEU wound down.
All of this is playing out as the new DCU tries to define itself with a clean slate. Gunn and Safran’s “Gods and Monsters” chapter has already delivered a successful new Superman and a fan-favorite Lanterns series, with the ensemble film Man of Tomorrow on deck and a mysterious character played by Adria Arjona heavily rumored to be the new Wonder Woman. The messaging around the reboot has emphasized a unified, long-term plan after years of course corrections in the Snyder-era DCEU, but Gadot’s and Cavill’s experiences highlight how brutal that kind of reset can be for the actors who helped build the previous continuity. Their stories also stand in contrast to Jason Momoa’s reported attempt to pivot from Aquaman to a different DC role, rumored to be Lobo, underscoring how some stars tried to ride the multiversal wave while others were swept out to sea.
For fans, Gadot’s latest comments land like a definitive closing of the book on one of the DCEU’s brightest spots. Her Diana became an instant icon—arguably the first truly consensus hit in the modern DC film slate—and her chemistry with Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman anchored an entire era of superhero cinema. Hearing that she felt the transition wasn’t handled with much grace, even if she bears no public grudges, reinforces a hard truth about shared universes: characters may be immortal, but incarnations are fragile, subject to corporate shakeups, shifting strategies, and changing box-office winds. As the DCU inches toward unveiling its next Wonder Woman, whether through Man of Tomorrow, Paradise Lost, or some surprise cameo, Gadot seems content to let someone else wield the lasso. The torch has clearly been passed—even if backstage, the handoff was a lot rougher than the branding lets on.
