(Warning: There are some very big destroyers for ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ below)
It was no secret that Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) would appear in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’, even though he died at the end of the last film. Dude was an important part of marketing the film. He had a tracksuit and a suit – we just did not know why he would come back or in what way. But the direction Patty Jenkins and co. went along wash quite surprising.
Now that we’ve seen “Wonder Woman 1984” and know how Steve came back to life, we have a whole bunch of new questions. Most of them are about the fact that Wonder Woman never considered the big ethical issue of having Steve steal a random guy’s body forever.
Also read: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’: Did Steve Trevor Go to Heaven?
Let us summarize the basics. Steve is brought back to life by the Dreamstone, a magical rock that lends wishes, ‘Monkey’s paw’ style. That is, it gives you what you asked for, but also takes away something. So Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) wishes Steve would live again, and it works! But over the course of the film, the magic of the stone slowly disappears her Amazon superpowers.
Steve’s resurrection is a little more complicated than we were used to in such situations in movies and TV shows. His physical body is not revived. He is not simply enchanted to be. No, it’s just his soul that has returned – into another man’s body.
Eventually, Wonder Woman is forced to relinquish her wish to regain her powers and save the world. And when she does and Steve leaves again, I think this guy regains his consciousness, amidst the chaos of the film’s climax, without having any idea what’s going on.
Also read: Explains the Crazy Climax of ‘Wonder Woman 1984’
“Wonder Woman 1984” never ceases to reflect on the strangeness of that situation. It actually shines over it by looking at Chris Pine’s face all the time instead of that of Kristoffer Polaha, the actor who plays the person whose body Steve owns.
But it’s definitely uncomfortable. For a few days, this nameless man loses control of his body while Steve and Diana have their serious adventures. He wakes up with a bunch of extra scratches and bruises. Diana had had permission with him at least once without him. Throughout the film, they risk the life of this man without letting him choose to get involved.
Steve also had no choice here, at least regarding the life in this man’s body. But Diana has. And when she finally gives up her wish in the third act, it’s not because of the concern for that man, but because she knew she had to save the world. If the world had not become chaos, she would have been glad that Steve only took over the guy’s existence until he died.
Also read: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Mid-Credits Scene Explained: Who is Asteria?
It’s frustrating that ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ is not really worried about it, that a character who’s kind of the shining star and the beating heart of the DCEU will completely ignore the many ethical complications of Steve’s return from the grave.
The strange thing about this situation is that they could just let Steve manifest in a new body instead of doing this thing. You would think that the reason they would do so would be to invite the ethical conversation I am having here. The Dreamstone is just magic, and it has no rules except the rules set by the writers.
I therefore assume that at one point there was a version of this film where Wonder Woman does reflect on the ethical consequences of Steve possessing this random man. It could be that this complicated factor in Steve’s resurrection was meant to be the result of the Dreamstone’s distortion of wishes. Like a ‘you can get him back, but in a way that will be ethically untenable for a true superhero’.
Also read: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’: everything you need to know about the Dreamstone
It’s much more interesting to me than ‘you can get Steve back, but you’ll lose your power.’ This would have been a real ethical dilemma, without any world interests. Diana giving up Steve to save the world is boring. Diana giving up Steve to save one person is a more compelling point of discussion.
Instead, the version of “Wonder Woman 1984” that we ended up with is not at all concerned about this issue. This is unfortunate, and honestly a pretty strange moral decay for the character.