Plenty of huge movies have been set in and around the United States capitol. While movies like All The President's Men are obviously about politics, other films like The Exorcist merely use Washington D.C. as a backdrop. Wonder Woman 1984 is the latest film to take place in and around the home of American politics -- but according to Gal Gadot, the film itself is not political.
Between confusion surrounding a global pandemic and a fraught election cycle, it’s safe to say that the idea of truth played an important role in how we navigated 2020. Director Patty Jenkins had no idea what was in store for the world when she and her team made Wonder Woman 1984, the importance of truth in overcoming evil is one of the film’s overriding themes.
Wonder Woman 1984 is set in Washington D.C., and its pivotal scenes take place in iconic parts of the U.S. Capitol. However, while Gal Gadot acknowledges that the issues Wonder Woman 1984 tackles may feel prescient, she told Variety that the film itself is not meant to make a political statement:
No, I don’t think it’s a political movie. I think there’s some political elements just because it’s the nature of the world and we’re dealing with some subjects that can easily be connected to politics. But the movie is not about politics. The movie is about something that is much more simple. It’s about truth and the power of truth and hope.
Gal Gadot does acknowledge that the film’s setting might play a big role in how fans interpret the overarching themes, especially when it comes to Maxwell Lord, one of Wonder Woman 1984’s most compelling villains:
It’s interesting because when we shot it, we didn’t really think about it until we got to the White House. And then we’re like, ‘Hmm.’ Maxwell Lord has so many different versions in the comic books. And I think that Patty and Dave [Callaham] and Geoff [Johns] — the writers — really took Gordon Gekko’s personality. The thing about Maxwell Lord in our movie, unlike the comics, is that he’s more complex because he’s not just an evil villain. He is a regular person who wants to be all these things that you would see on TV. I know from Pedro while we were shooting the movie, that at a certain point, he just focused on the page and what was there. And along with Patty, they just created this character. But we never tried to mimic anybody else. We never tried to mimic Trump or anything.
In other words, while Wonder Woman 1984’s timely message -- that truth is essential -- is a key part of what makes the film work, but it wasn’t one that was delivered with an intention to be political. Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t more relevant than ever these days.
