Connie Nielsen, who played Queen Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe, has admitted she doesn’t understand why Wonder Woman 3 was cancelled. While recently promoting Gladiator II, she told Den of Geek that she’s confused that DC Studio decided not to make the second Wonder Woman sequel.

Before the release of the series’ first follow-up, Wonder Woman 1984, in 2020, co-writer/director Patty Jenkins revealed that she already had plans for a third entry. The next installment would once again star Gal Gadot in the titular role, and it would be set in the present day. The Emmy-nominated filmmaker, who penned and helmed both entries in the series, also planned to make a spinoff Amazons movie.

Despite Wonder Woman 3 being officially greenlit by Warner Bros. in December 2020, those plans were later scrapped in August 2023. The proposed project was cancelled as new DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran assumed leadership of the franchise and began planning their DC Universe reboot.

During the interview, Nielsen, who starred in both Wonder Woman films, noted that the original feature made over $800 million at the box office. She also said that both movies were made with smaller budgets in comparison to other DCEU projects.

The actress stated: “I think it’s crazy. I mean, frankly, I don’t understand it. [Wonder Woman] made $800 million just in the movie theaters, and it has an enormous and passionate, passionate fan base. These are spectacular films, and there’s just no reason I can understand whatsoever for not investing in that. If I were a business person, I would say that’s money on the table. It’s right there. Plus every time we’ve done it, [it was] with budgets that were way smaller than any of the other DC budgets.”

Nielsen also said: “It’s a pity. I really hope that they change their minds, and that they realize this is crazy. This is a billion dollars that is lying on the table. Not claiming those fans and making them happy is something I just don’t really understand at all.”

The actress went on to praise everything about the Wonder Woman movies and how the filmmakers built the world from the idea of women who really existed. She said, “I loved that island, those costumes, those characters, the values that those Amazons represented. It was fantastic.

“I built that character off real historical and anthropology books on the Amazons, there’s now real DNA evidence that these Amazons really did exist, that there really were famous female warriors, and we now know that burial mounds were where those warriors were buried. They just assumed it was a man because of who the person was buried with. And now they realize, oh, no, DNA analysis shows they were women,” Nielsen also revealed.

Gunn and Safran’s new DC Universe will launch this December with the animated Creature Commandos. The former’s Superman movie will serve as the first true test of the duo’s plans for a soft franchise reboot.

John Cena’s Peacemaker and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller have already been confirmed to appear in the new DCEU after they previously starred in The Suicide Squad. Despite the performers’ return, there’s still confusion amongst many, including Nielsen, about how the two versions of the franchise will relate to each other.

Heightening this sense of confusion is that Gunn and Safran’s plans for other key franchise characters like Wonder Woman and Batman have not yet to be revealed in full detail. Like Neilsen pointed out, Gadot’s version of Princess Diana was one of the DCEU’s most profitable and critically acclaimed entries. As a result, many fans are still hoping that she will also return to the franchise. However, these hopes come as previous reports have suggested that none of the original Justice League members will reprise their DCEU roles in the franchise’s new reboot.

However, Jenkins’ original plans to expand the DCEU’s Wonder Woman lore in her Amazons spinoff do appear to have had some inspiration on the forthcoming Paradise Lost prequel series. Said to be set on Themyscira  before Diana’s birth, it is possible that Gunn and Safran may take inspiration from Jenkins’ proposed spinoff. But it is almost definite that her plans for Wonder Woman 3 will never be made by the new DC Studios.