After decades of popularity in the comics, television and other forms of media, Wonder Woman finally made her live action, theatrical debut earlier this year being played by Gal Gadot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Gadot will reprise the role next year in Wonder Woman (and then Justice League months later), but it took years to lead to her solo movie finally becoming a reality, and several actresses were considered during that time. For instance, when The Neon Demon's Nicolas Winding Refn was briefly in talks to direct, he had Mad Men star Christina Hendricks star in mind to play the Amazonian.
While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via ComicBookMovie), Refn reveals that he did indeed have a meeting with Warner Bros about helming Wonder Woman, though he scoffed at the idea of the studio actually hiring him for the project. Nevertheless, during the meeting, he stated that he wanted Hendricks to play Diana of Themyscira, and that's apparently where the talks ceased. Hendricks was among the many actresses considered for a Wonder Woman movie over its two-decade tenure in development hell, including Angelina Jolie, Cather Zeta-Jones and Priyanka Chopra
These talks obviously occurred way before Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe (a.k.a. pre-late 2013), so this was around the time that Christina Hendricks was still leading one of the most popular shows on television. Sci-fi fans may have known her years before for appearing in two episodes of Firefly, but she's most famous for starring as Joan Crawford on Mad Men from 2007 to 2015, a role for which she earned six Emmy nominations. During that run, she also appeared in movies like Drive _(where she was directed by Winding), _Struck By Lightning and Lost River, as well as provided Lois Lane's voice in the animated movie All-Star Superman. Had Wonder Woman gone into production sooner, I can definitely imagine Hendricks as Diana, iconic costume and all. However, it sounds like Warner Bros wasn't too keen on casting her, though as Refn noted, maybe they just didn't care for any of his ideas in general.
This was but one moment in the struggle to get Wonder Woman to the big screen, but it finally became a reality when Gal Gadot's iteration was introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her movie next year, which takes place during World War I, is being directed by Patty Jenkins, who succeeded Michelle McLaren after she departed for creative reason. Its main cast includes Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Lucy Davis as Etta Candy, Robin Wright as General Antiope and more.
While we'll never see Christina Hendricks wear the tiara and wield the lasso, you can see Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman next when her solo movie arrives on June 2, 2017. However, you can see Hendricks star as Chair in the Comedy Central spoof series Another Period.
