Why They Had To Shoot That 'Wonder Woman' Photo Twice

Recreating the Diana Prince-led group photo from Batman v Superman in Wonder Woman wasn't quick and simple. Because it was going to be a part of Zack Snyder's film, which came out four months after the new DCEU movie started production, director Patty Jenkins had to shoot the photo first. Then, when Jenkins and everybody were back together on set, they had to recreate the photo just as it was shown in Snyder's film.

The origin of the Wonder Woman photo scene is a surprisingly interesting look at how various movies in an ongoing franchise have to operate together.

The picture comes after Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), and the gang liberate a Belgian village from the Germans. Joined by Charlie (Ewen Bremner), Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui), and Chief (Eugene Brave Rock), they pose for a local photographer.

Bremner discussed taking the photo twice with Yahoo! Movies:

That was the first thing that we shot, before we'd even shot a scene [for Wonder Woman] we shot that photograph. It meant that when we eventually got around to shooting the scene that the [photograph] is from, we had to really painstakingly recreate it. Because we [took the photo] against a half-built set, in a way sets were still being built at that point. So by the time we came around to filming that scene, probably around five months later, the sets were much more developed. So we had to find a way to recreate the exact same image after half a year had gone by.

Here's the photo from Batman v: Superman: Dawn of Justice, which features few noticeable differences from the scene in Wonder Woman:

Wonder Woman producer, Debbie Snyder, explained how the photo was shot and became such a prominent part of the film to Collider last year:

The Wonder Woman daguerreotype photograph where we see her for the first time, we shot that and then we actually reshot it. We just shot it, and then when they were working on the script [for Wonder Woman], we were like, 'Wow what if we put in the script, the actual taking of the photograph?' But it's totally different people because we shot it on our set, so when [Wonder Woman director] Patty [Jenkins] was doing camera tests, we were back and forth because we were prepping that movie and editing and starting Justice League. On one of the days we just got the group together, brought over—because it's shot on these beautiful glass plates—we brought Steven over, who is a friend of Zack's from Arts Center, and he's a professor over there and he shoots this beautiful glass plate photography, and we shot it with all the cast.

Some of the awkward franchise-building in Batman v Superman ultimately set up one of Wonder Woman's finest scenes, and all it is a group of characters getting together for a photo, not CG-heavy destruction. It's such a strong image. Even seeing it out of context, like plastered in an Arclight Theaters lobby, it carries weight. It's such a likable group of characters standing for good, led by a hugely charismatic, kind-hearted, and powerful hero.

Wonder Woman is now in theaters.