Adrianne Palicki reflects on failed Wonder Woman pilot

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The year is 2011, and in just a few short years, Zack Snyder will cast Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman for BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. But for one brief moment, Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights) was the Amazonian Goddess. The actress signed on to play Wonder Woman in a pilot for a potential NBC series, and although the show had some major creative power behind it, the network ultimately passed.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Adrianne Palicki looked back on her experience playing Wonder Woman, which was something of a dream come true. At a young age, Palicki fell in love with characters like Wonder Woman and Supergirl because she admired her older brother, who wrote comic-books. "Anything he did, I wanted to do," Palicki said. "Of course, I gravitated toward these beautiful, strong women, wanting to be one eventually as this awkward child." The Wonder Woman series originated from David E. Kelly (Big Little Lies) and would have offered up a new take on the superhero. The world would know Wonder Woman both as the Los Angeles-based superhero but also as her alter ego Diana Themyscira, "the leader of a large corporation that merchandises the Wonder Woman brand to fund her vigilante hustle." But Wonder Woman would have had a third identity, this one a closely guarded secret, as Diana Prince, a "meek, bespectacled woman who owns a cat and enjoys romance movies." Although it was a challenge, Palicki said that getting to play three takes on the same character was a lot of fun.

It was fun for me to get to play three different characters ultimately. I loved that David E. Kelley is really great at writing really strong women, and I found he did that beautifully in all of the different personas. What they all still had [in common] was this beautiful vulnerability of isolation.

In addition to Adrianne Palicki, the Wonder Woman pilot also starred Cary Elwes as her business partner Henry, Tracie Thomas as her personal assistant Etta, Justin Bruening as her ex-boyfriend Steve Trevor, Elizabeth Hurley as Veronica Cale, her arch-nemesis, as well as future WONDER WOMAN 1984 star Pedro Pascal as her liaison to the LAPD. At the end of the day, NBC passed on the pilot. "It was devastating when it didn’t go. It was so big," Palicki said. "I feel like maybe if it had been [made] one or two more years [later], it would’ve been a shoo-in." Although Palicki ultimately wouldn't get to be seen as Wonder Woman, she was thrilled when Gal Gadot took the role on the big-screen. "It's so great to see this character come to life because it is important for young girls. She changed my life," said Palicki.

Wonder Woman will next be seen in WONDER WOMAN 1984, which is still slated to hit theaters on December 25, 2020. Beyond that, Gal Gadot will also be back for Zack Snyder's director's cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE that will launch on HBO Max in 2021.