The ‘Wonder Woman: 1984’ End-Credit Scene, Explained by Director Patty Jenkins
Warning: Spoilers for the Wonder Woman: 1984 end-credit scene, ahead.
I know I’m not the only one who wants to know more about Asteria, the mysterious Golden Warrior introduced in Wonder Woman: 1984.
From the second we saw a flash of her eyes in the film as Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) described the famed Amazon who held back the “tides of men” through the power of every piece of Amazonian armor, I was invested. I, too, would like the power to ward off men so my ladies can live on a remote island and hold intense Tri-Amazon Tournaments!
Thankfully, it seems Diana was wrong about the Amazon’s tragic demise, as was confirmed in the film’s subtle end-credits scene. In a vague future, we see an Amazon save a child from being crushed by a falling poll. However, it’s not Diana doing the rescuing: it’s Asteria.
“She survived,” director Patty Jenkins confirms to Glamour, in case there is any confusion. “Diana went looking for the Golden Warrior, and she couldn’t find her, all she found was our armor and so we don’t know what happened to her. So I went very out of my way to make it unclear what year that is that we’re seeing that end credit scene, but she’s alive. She’s still here and walking around.”
But that’s not even the scene’s biggest reveal. When Asteria turns around, we see the warrior is played by none other than the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter! “I’ve been doing this a long time,” she tells a grateful mother, with a coy look into the camera.
As it turns out, it was Carter’s experience as Wonder Woman that made her so difficult for Jenkins to cast in the 2017 film. “It was very hard in the first one because I didn’t feel like it would be right to make her Diana’s mother or something like that because we all associate her so much with being Wonder Woman,” she explains. “Gal hadn’t stepped into that fully yet, and you can’t make a Superman movie where Christopher Reeve plays somebody else because we’re all just gonna say, that’s fucking Superman! Superman’s right there!”
Jenkins continues, “You can’t put Wonder Woman in a first Wonder Woman movie of another Wonder Woman!” Say that 10 times fast.
According to Jenkins, it was all about honoring Carter’s legacy. “I can’t throw her away on something small but I can’t make her something big,” the director says she felt at the time. “What I loved about this way of doing it is that I feel like we’re really truly honoring who she is. Who is it that inspired the legacy of the greatest hero of all time: Lynda! So it was like a perfect thing to put it both in the story but actually have it stand for exactly what she means to us.”
From there, it was just about getting Carter on the phone. “She didn’t even know what an end credit scene was or how people would digest it, so we just talked about it and she’s was on board,” Jenkins adds.
Now, if Jenkins returns to direct Wonder Woman III, maybe there’s a chance for a team-up between Wonder Woman and Asteria where they return to the manless island of Themyscira…A girl can dream.
Wonder Woman is now playing in theaters and available to stream on HBO Max.
Emily Tannenbaum is an entertainment journalist, critic, and screenwriter living in L.A. Follow her on Twitter.
