Daniel Warren Johnson’s Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is one of the most intriguing Elseworlds stories to come out of DC. The writer is known for his work with Transformers and Marvel’s Beta Ray Bill, which have also received high praise from fans and critics alike.
James Gunn took to his Threads account to personally praise the comic book writer, whose work Gunn read recently, especially the Elseworld Wonder Woman story.
Wonder Woman: Dead Earth follows Diana through a post-apocalyptic setting. The Princess of Themiscyra wakes up in a world that has met its end and then some.
Diana then treks through the world, making friends, and trying to figure out how she slept through the apocalypse in her cryogenic pod. While this is far from a Wonder Woman story that can make its way into Gunn’s DCU, given that he now heads DC as its co-chairman, it is difficult not to wonder that this will not factor into his plans for the universe somehow.
Wonder Woman: Dead Earth could be the perfect Elseworld story to bring back Gal Gadot
There are a lot of stories in the DC canon that have Wonder Woman surviving the end of the world in one form or another like Wolverine does in the Marvel Universe. Making an Elseworlds story that is set out of the main DC continuity would be the way to go with Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, something that is more akin to 2017’s Logan.
This would be the perfect opportunity to bring back Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman of the Snyder-verse to have her essay the role one last time, bringing closure to the universe that was left unfinished.
While it is highly unlikely that James Gunn would revisit the Snyderverse, Dead Earth is the perfect opportunity for an Elseworlds film that is just too good to miss. And given that Gunn has revealed how much he has enjoyed the book, there is hope that fans will see this story adapted in some form or another.
James Gunn could adapt Wonder Woman: Dead Earth in conjunction with another story
The Immortal Wonder Woman sees the character of Diana deal with the literal end of her universe. From the deaths of her remaining Amazon sisters to seeing Clark Kent fight Darkseid to the death inside the heart of Earth’s sun, in this story Diana sees her universe succumb to the darkness before she and the Spectre are the only ones who remain.
Given that comic book adaptations have a tendency to adapt multiple storylines to create enough meat for an adaptation, Dead Earth and the Immortal Wonder Woman could be combined into one storyline if they were ever adapted, given how similar the stories are.
While there are other post-apocalyptic stories that feature Wonder Woman (like Batman: Last Knight on Earth), these two stories specifically focus on Wonder Woman and what she would do with her status as an immortal warrior after her companions are long gone.
James Gunn may never adapt this story, given that it might not fit into his vision for the DCU, but the narrative of Dead Earth lends itself to an amazing animated adaption for Wonder Woman, of which there are few when compared to Superman and Batman, which something that Gunn can look to remedy asap.
