Even if there weren’t a highly-anticipated movie on the horizon, we’d be getting a lot of Wonder Woman news this year anyway. 2016 is the 75th anniversary of the character’s first appearance, which was in All Star Comics #8. Since then, the superhero’s gotten her own title, TV show, Ms. magazine cover, and United Nations ambassadorship. She’s also served as a feminist icon, which is what creator Dr. William Moulton Marston had in mind all along. Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, an upcoming biopic starring Luke Evans, will reveal more of Wonder Woman and her creator’s background, including his polyamorous relationship with Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne. The two women inspired the personality and appearance of Diana, who Marston designed to be a modern, liberated woman.
Wonder Woman’s agency and interest in bondage landed Marston in hot water, though, including charges of “sexual perversity.” That should factor into the film’s plot, where the morality police will be represented in part by Connie Britton. Deadline reports the Nashville star has signed on to play Josette Frank, “a brilliant and uncompromising psychologist” who considers Marston’s work both dangerous and anti-feminist. The real-life Josette Frank, for what it’s worth, appeared to be a big fan of comic books in general, including Wonder Woman. As the director of children’s books and mass media for the Child Study Association of America, she conducted research about children’s comics-reading habits, and doesn’t seem to have ever really opposed them.
In a more fitting real-life analogue, comics pioneer Max (or M.C.) Gaines will be played by Oliver Platt. Gaines was the co-publisher of All-American Publications, which printed Wonder Woman comics before being bought by National Allied Publications, a.k.a DC Comics’ precursor.