Well, that was unexpected.
The Wonder Woman sequel which is now working under the official, fantastically Orwellian title Wonder Woman 1984 started filming two days ago. To celebrate the occasion, Patty Jenkins did this:
But, but, but…that dude died. Don’t tell me he didn’t. I saw it. At the end of the movie. When he’s up in the plane. Sacrificing himself. Inspiring Diana and reinforcing her faith in the good in humanity. [Choking up.] Then he does that thing where he closes his eyes as if his soul is looking down at Diana and saying goodbye. [Wiping away tears.] And she cries out when his plane explodes. [Openly balling now.] And then when she almost gives in to anger she flashes back to the last thing he said to her. [Full-on ugly cry.]
Damn you, Wonder Woman. Captain America: First Avenger rip or not, that ending still gets me every time.
Right. So Steve Trevor’s not dead. Um, bullshit.. Even if you go by the ole we-didn’t-technically-see-him-die-on-screen rule which would leave a Dark Knight Rises-style opening for the mostly perfectly deployed parachute ever, this sequel is set decades in the future, yet there’s Steve looking as Chris-Pine-fine as ever. What, and might I add, the fuck?
Possible explanations:
1. That’s Steve’s grandson.
Don’t laugh. They didn’t something similar with the Linda Carter TV series when it switched from a period drama to a modern day setting in-between the first and second season. Rather than recast the role of the love interest, they just said this new guy who looked exactly the same was Steve’s son. Is Wonder Woman 1984 pulling a similar trick?
2. That’s not really Steve. THR, you wanna take this one?:
It would be nice to see Diana rekindle her romance with Trevor, her state in the DCEU films later along in the timeline and his notable absence suggest that happily-ever-after may not be in their future. It’s possible that the Steve Trevor appearing in Wonder Woman 1984 is not the original, but a disguise for a darker presence. A similar twist took place in Wonder Woman No. 289 (1982), when Wonder Woman’s frequent nemesis, Doctor Psycho, created a powerful body out of ectoplasm that looked like Trevor and fought Diana as Captain Wonder. With Pedro Pascal’s role in the sequel yet to be revealed, could it be that he will be tormenting Diana alongside the Cheetah as Doctor Pyscho, fake Steve Trevor in tow?
There was also a time in the comics when Steve died and the god Eros posed as him just to mess with Diana because gods always be messin’, amiright?
3. That’s actually Captain Kirk in a Star Trek/WW time travel cross-over.
Hear me out…
Ok. Don’t hear me out. I’m clearly just kidding with this one.
Larger question: Descendent, fake, or otherwise, should Steve even be in this movie? It is always nice to see Chris Pine play this character, and his rapport with Gal Gadot is an obvious highlight of the first movie. However, wasn’t Wonder Woman just officially declared a queer character by DC Comics, meaning she’s free to have a either male or female love interest? They’ve already told the Steve Trevor story; why not tell a new one?
But remember how I said at the beginning that they literally just started filming this movie? Yeah, that hasn’t changed in the 2 or 3 minutes you’ve spent reading this post. There are months of filming ahead and a November 1, 2019 release date to be met. What we know about this movie is actually not much – set in the 80s, probably doing an Orwell/Trump commentary thing with that 1984 title, Kristen Wiig is playing the villain Cheeta, Pedro Pascal is also around playing, um, someone, and Gal Gadot is NOT going to be sporting cliched 80s hair.
Now, we also know Steve Trevor is in it. We’re a long way from discovering how that’s actually going to play out. At the moment, I’m conflicted – on the one hand, OMG, Steve Trevor’s back!; on the other hand, oh, Steve’s back. That might not be the best idea.
What do you think about it? Should they have honored the tragedy of the relationship the way the MCU did with Captain America and Peggy Carter? Does bringing Steve back present the chance they are falling into a trap of defining Wonder Woman by the man in her life? Should they give Diana a girlfriend instead? Or maybe no love interest at all? Or is this all far too much debate for a film that’s far too early in its production? Let me know in the comments.
We Minored in Film 
Well I’m not happy about that. There was already too much Steve Trevor in the first movie. Hopefully there won’t be much of him in this one.
Why does she need a love interest at all?
The love interest-per-movie model does seem outmoded, but so much of that first movie is a throwback to the Donner Superman. Makes sense to give Diana her own Lois Lane.
But the Captain America sequels have certainly run with “just doing it for a friend.” By the time of JL, Diana is alone. So, there’s no happy ending for those two. The new movie could still see her in mourning, but, dammit, they also already covered that dramatic territory in JL.
Maybe WW1984 is just pretending JL didn’t happen.
Actually, that’s probably a wise move.
I’m ambivalent about Steve Trevor coming back. It really depends on how well they do it.
My biggest concern is how they handle continuity.
They’ve established that Diana kept a low profile since the WW movie. With all the research Bruce Wayne did, all he was able to come up with were some old photos from WW2. She even admitted to Bruce that since then she only worked in the shadows and only if really needed. Anything of interest or significance she does in 1984 would absolutely have drawn some kind of attention. There’d be a picture, some news articles, probably some mentions in TV news, as well. No way Bruce doesn’t come across at least some of that when researching who Diana is.
You’re right. A lot of BvS and JL runs straight in the face of this. Maybe this means, however, they dont feel overly beholdened to JL after its financial failure.
If they’re going to pretend BvS didn’t exist then they need to go all in with that. No half measures.