If you spend enough time digging through old IMDB threads or fan forums, you’ll eventually stumble across people asking about the wonder woman 2013 movie. It’s a weirdly specific search. Usually, when people talk about Diana of Themyscira on the big screen, they’re thinking of Gal Gadot’s 2017 breakout or maybe that messy sequel in 2020. But 2013? That year is a total ghost town for the Amazonian Princess, at least in the way most people remember it.
Honestly, the "2013 movie" is mostly a case of collective Mandela Effect mixed with some very real, very failed development cycles.
We’ve gotta set the record straight: there was no live-action Wonder Woman feature film released in theaters in 2013. Period. If you saw a poster for it back then, it was fan-made. If you saw a trailer, it was a "concept" edit on YouTube using clips from Fast & Furious or Megan Fox movies. But while the movie didn’t exist, the struggle to make it was peaking right around then. Understanding why we didn’t get a movie that year actually explains a lot about why the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) turned out the way it did.
What was actually happening with Wonder Woman in 2013?
The year 2013 was huge for DC, but for all the wrong reasons if you were a Wonder Woman fan. That was the year Man of Steel dropped. Zack Snyder was busy launching a gritty, desaturated Superman, and the plan was to build a universe around Henry Cavill. Behind the scenes, Warner Bros. was sweating. They knew they needed the "Trinity"—Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman—but they had no clue how to handle Diana.
Before the Gal Gadot era, the character was stuck in what creators call "development hell."
Specifically, everyone was still reeling from the 2011 David E. Kelley pilot. You remember that one? Adrianne Palicki in the shiny blue pants? It was a disaster. It never aired. Because that pilot failed so spectacularly, Warner Bros. became terrified of the character for a few years. By 2013, they weren't making a movie; they were trying to develop a TV show for The CW called Amazon. It was supposed to be a Smallville-style origin story.
The "Amazon" project and why it died
Scriptwriter Allan Heinberg, who eventually wrote the 2017 film, was actually working on this 2013 TV project. The focus was on a young Diana before she became a superhero. But the network kept pushing it back. They couldn't get the script right. They couldn't find the right tone. While Marvel was already deep into Phase 2 with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, DC was still wondering if audiences would accept a woman with a golden lasso.
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It’s kinda frustrating to look back on.
In 2013, the closest thing we actually got to a wonder woman 2013 movie was her appearance in direct-to-video animated features. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox came out in July 2013. In that movie, Wonder Woman is a terrifying warlord who conquers Great Britain and fights Aquaman in a global apocalypse. It’s a great flick, but it’s definitely not the solo live-action debut people were hunting for.
The casting rumors that fueled the 2013 fire
Since Man of Steel was the only game in town that year, the internet was a powder keg of casting rumors. This is likely where the "2013" search intent comes from. In late 2013, specifically December, Warner Bros. finally dropped the bombshell: Gal Gadot had been cast as Wonder Woman for the Man of Steel sequel, which we now know as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Before Gal got the gig, the 2013 rumor mill was wild. People were convinced it would be:
- Jaimie Alexander: She was already playing Sif in the Marvel movies, but the rumors were loud.
- Olga Kurylenko: She actually screen-tested against Gal Gadot.
- Elodie Yung: Another actress who was reportedly in the mix before eventually playing Elektra for Marvel.
Because the casting news happened in 2013, a lot of blogs at the time started reporting on "The 2013 Wonder Woman Movie," even though they were actually talking about a project that wouldn't hit screens for another three or four years. It's a classic case of SEO titles from a decade ago haunting the search results of today.
Why a solo movie in 2013 would have probably failed
Looking back, it’s probably a good thing we didn't get a wonder woman 2013 movie. Think about the landscape.
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The industry wasn't ready. That sounds cynical, but look at the stats. Before 2017, female-led superhero movies were treated as box office poison because of failures like Catwoman (2004) and Elektra (2005). Executives were using decade-old data to justify not spending money on Diana. If they had rushed a movie out in 2013 to compete with The Avengers, it likely would have been a low-budget, messy attempt that tried too hard to be "edgy" like Man of Steel.
We also have to talk about Joss Whedon. Long before he stepped in to finish Justice League, Whedon spent years in the mid-2000s and early 2010s trying to get a Wonder Woman script off the ground. His version was... controversial. When the script eventually leaked years later, fans were mostly relieved it wasn't made. It focused heavily on Steve Trevor and portrayed Diana in a way that many felt was out of character.
Spotting the fakes: The fan films of 2013
There is one more reason you might think there’s a wonder woman 2013 movie.
In September 2013, a director named Jesse V. Johnson released a short "fan film" or pitch trailer starring Rileah Vanderbilt. It was high-quality. It had gritty trench warfare, a comic-accurate costume, and great VFX. It went viral. For a lot of people who weren't following trade publications like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter, that video was the Wonder Woman movie trailer.
It’s basically the most famous piece of Wonder Woman media from that specific calendar year. It showed Warner Bros. that there was a massive appetite for a period-piece action movie centered on Diana. You can still find it on YouTube, and honestly, it holds up better than some big-budget stuff from that era.
Realities of the production timeline
If you’re trying to piece together the timeline of how we actually got to the real movie, it looks nothing like the 2013 rumors suggested.
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- 2010-2012: Total stagnation. Scripts by Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland are bought but shelved.
- Early 2013: The CW's Amazon pilot is "on pause" indefinitely.
- Summer 2013: Man of Steel opens; Zack Snyder gets the green light to expand the universe.
- December 2013: Gal Gadot officially signs a three-picture deal.
- 2014: Michelle MacLaren is hired to direct the solo film, then leaves due to "creative differences."
- 2015: Patty Jenkins takes the helm.
Basically, 2013 was the "pivot year." It was the year DC stopped trying to make her a TV star and decided to make her a cinematic icon.
What you can actually watch from that era
If you’re craving that 2013-era DC vibe, you aren't totally out of luck. While the solo live-action film is a myth, the character was thriving in other media.
Check out Injustice: Gods Among Us. That game launched in 2013 and featured a very prominent (if slightly villainous) Wonder Woman. It’s probably the most influential version of the character from that specific year. Also, keep an eye out for the DC Nation shorts that aired on Cartoon Network around then. They were stylized, fun, and captured the spirit of the character way better than the dark, brooding live-action pitches of the time.
How to find the real story
Don’t get fooled by those weird "Full Movie 2013" uploads on random streaming sites. They’re usually just the 2009 animated movie (which is excellent, by the way) with a fake thumbnail.
If you want to understand the real history of Wonder Woman in cinema, you have to look at the gap between the end of the Lynda Carter era and the 2016 debut in BvS. It’s a 30-year gap filled with broken contracts and bad scripts. The "2013 movie" is just a footnote in a much larger story of a character that Hollywood didn't know how to handle until they finally just let her be a hero.
To get the most out of your Wonder Woman history search, skip the 2013 "movie" rabbit hole and look into these specific areas:
- Search for "The 2011 Wonder Woman Pilot": Watch the leaked footage to see what DC almost did. It's a fascinating train wreck.
- Look up "Rainy Day Productions Wonder Woman": This was the 2013 fan film that fooled everyone.
- Track the "Amazon" TV series scripts: You can find summaries online that show how they wanted to turn Diana into a moody teenager.
- Watch Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox: If you want the actual Wonder Woman content released in 2013, this is it. It’s brutal, but it’s real.
The hunt for a wonder woman 2013 movie usually leads to a dead end because the film simply doesn't exist in our reality. But the "almost" versions of that year paved the way for the 2017 masterpiece that finally broke the glass ceiling for female superheroes.