The plethora of live-action DC television shows from the 2010s only featured limited uses of and references to the characters and comic book mythology related to Wonder Woman. It’s been widely speculated that this was likely due to Warner Brothers and DC placing restrictions on how such characters and concepts could be depicted, as in the case of aspects of the Batman mythology. Donna Troy, one of Diana Prince’s temporary successors to the Wonder Woman title from the comics, appeared on the HBO Max series Titans, played by Conor Leslie, as did some of Diana’s other fellow Amazons and the island of Themyscira, but Diana herself was never shown onscreen.
Likewise, while TV’s original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, portrayed a separate character on Supergirl, the most significant reference the interconnected Arrowverse made to Diana’s mythos was when a time-displaced Helen of Troy (Bar Paly) was given sanctuary and combat training on Themyscira in Legends of Tomorrow. These restrictions were likely put in place due to the development and eventual popularity of Gal Gadot’s cinematic iteration of Diana, but things could have been very different if an earlier project had been a success. In 2011, a Wonder Woman series was being developed for NBC, with a pilot even being filmed in which future Marvel Cinematic Universe star Adrianne Palicki portrayed Diana, before the network canceled the project.
NBC Tried To Make a New Wonder Woman TV Show
The Wonder Woman pilot was written by David E. Kelley and directed by Jeffrey Reiner. It begins with Diana already established as a superhero, but minimizes some of the more outlandish aspects of her mythology. Depictions of magic and Greek mythological figures are minimal other than Diana’s own superhuman physical attributes, with even her iconic lasso not shown being used for its signature ability to compel people to tell the truth. This distance from the source material, and some of the more soap-opera-like relationship dynamics featured, especially between Diana and her ex-boyfriend, Steve Trevor (Justin Bruening), may be partially responsible for the project’s abandonment. The pilot also notably features Pedro Pascal in a supporting role, with the actor having since gone on to star in the divisive sequel Wonder Woman: 1984 alongside Gadot and the upcoming Marvel film The Fantastic Four: First Steps as Reed Richards.
Adrianne Palicki’s Mockingbird Was an Excellent Addition to ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’
Shortly after Wonder Woman’s cancellation, Palicki joined the cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the MCU’s first television series, portraying Barbara “Bobbi” Morse, an agent of the titular spy agency who also serves as a superhero and Avenger in Marvel Comics. Bobbi is introduced in the series’ second season, posing as a high-ranking agent of terrorist organization Hydra. After helping extract fellow undercover agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), Bobbi serves as one of the leading members of the rebuilt S.H.I.E.L.D., which is a fugitive group after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Despite having no actual superpowers, Bobbi was the first active superhero to appear regularly on S.H.I.E.L.D.
Rejoining S.H.I.E.L.D. proper reunites Bobbi with ex-husband Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), who initially joined the group as a mercenary. Despite frequent bickering, the pair soon rekindle a romance, though the complexities of life as espionage agents make it difficult to healthily maintain. Bobbi is also occasionally critical of resurrected S.H.I.E.L.D. director Phil Coulson’s (Clark Gregg) leadership style, which sometimes leads to additional clashes with Hunter, who quickly becomes loyal to Coulson.
In Season 3, Episode 13, the couple is written out of the series after taking the blame for an assassination attempt Hydra tried to frame S.H.I.E.L.D. for. This twist was meant to lead to the duo headlining a spin-off series, Marvel’s Most Wanted, which also had a pilot filmed, before the ABC network abandoned plans for the project, which, of course, was especially disappointing to fans aware of Palicki’s similar history with Wonder Woman. Blood would subsequently reprise the role of Hunter for a guest appearance in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Season 5, but despite being frequently referenced, Bobbi never returned onscreen.
Adrianne Palicki Should Be Brought Back to DC or Marvel
Palicki’s fight scenes in S.H.I.E.L.D. and other projects, like G.I. Joe: Retaliation and the original John Wick, emphasize that she has the action and stunt skills to believably portray Wonder Woman’s physicality, while her work in Bobbi’s more vulnerable, personal storylines shows her versatility as an actor. Collectively, these qualities suggest that she would still be a strong choice for the role of Diana or many of DC’s other leading heroines in either the new, shared, DC Universe or a standalone Elseworlds adaptation. Likewise, her return to Marvel would always be welcome.
If Palicki ever returns to the MCU, it will hopefully be as Bobbi, but this, unfortunately, isn’t guaranteed. Whether or not the show is still canonical to the franchise’s main universe-616 has become increasingly unclear since its latter seasons, with the use of certain characters and concepts that first appeared in S.H.I.E.L.D. in more recent Marvel projects seeming to contradict the show’s continuity.
Bobbi’s status in particular has been in doubt since the 2021 series Hawkeye. That show revealed that while working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Laura Barton (Linda Cardellini) was dubbed Agent 19, a code name instead used by Bobbi in the original comics universe. Despite this, the limitless storytelling opportunities created by the Marvel multiverse mean Palicki could definitely still return as some incarnation of the character or more simply take on a separate role regardless of continuity, as some other S.H.I.E.L.D. stars have done in recent projects.