The New 'Wonder Woman' Trailer Features a Sly Shout-Out to Christopher Reeve's Superman

Gal Gadot in the new trailer (Photo: DC/Warner Bros.)
Gal Gadot in the new trailer (Photo: DC/Warner Bros.)

Anticipation for next summer’s Wonder Woman hit a new high yesterday with the release of the film’s action-packed new trailer. And for discerning fans, it also contained a subtle, progressive shout-out to DC’s most famous superhero.

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Per Cinemablend (via @ComicBookDebate), the new Wonder Woman trailer includes a quick, reverential nod to Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman. Gal Gadot’s disguised heroine steps in front of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) to shield him from a gunman’s bullet with one of her famous bracelets. That moment — taking place in front of a brick wall and featuring Pine in a suit and brimmed hat — echoes a similar incident with Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent and Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane in Superman. (See it ably demonstrated in the gifs below.) Except, of course, in director Patty Jenkins’ upcoming film, the gender roles have been reversed — a bit of 21st-century revisionism that’s furthered by the fact that, in a sly joke, Gadot’s Diana is pretending to be Trevor’s secretary. “She’s a very good secretary,” Trevor says in the next scene.

Here’s hoping Jenkins’ included this tribute as a means of associating her film with Donner’s great Superman, and also as a way of showing that, in this day and age, a woman is just as capable as a man when it comes to superheroically saving a damsel (or dude) in distress. Wonder Woman flies into theaters on June 2, 2017.

Watch the new trailer: