Gal Gadot confirms that Brett Ratner won't be involved in 'Wonder Woman' sequel
- Gal Gadot confirmed that Brett Ratner, whose company helped finance "Wonder Woman," is not involved in the sequel.
- However, it's not because of her ultimatum that went viral over the weekend, in which she reportedly refused to be in the film if Ratner was still involved.
- Ratner's company's deal with the studio expires in 2018, before "Wonder Woman 2" begins production.
While promoting "Justice League" on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday, Gal Gadot confirmed that Brett Ratner will not be involved in the sequel to "Wonder Woman." This is on the heels of a story that ran over the weekend in Page Six, which said that Gadot would not return to the iconic DC Comics role if the director-producer was involved.
"The truth is, there's so many people involved in making this movie, it's not just me, and they all echoed the same sentiments," Gadot said. "Everyone knew what was the right thing to do. But there was nothing for me to actually come and say because [the decision] was already done before this article [on Saturday declaring a stand-off] came out."
Ratner, whose production company RatPac-Dune Entertainment helped finance "Wonder Woman" and other major titles for Warner Bros., is one of the Hollywood players to be accused of sexual assault and harassment since the bombshell reports of movie executive Harvey Weinstein's alleged decades-long misconduct prompted a "ripple effect."
As Business Insider reported on Monday, the deal RatPac-Dune has with Warner Bros. will expire before "Wonder Woman 2" goes into production.
The 2013 deal between the two companies was for 75 pictures over "three or four" years covering Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema releases. The final title in the deal will be the Dwayne Johnson movie, "Rampage," which opens for New Line April 20, 2018.
Ratner announced in early November that he would "step away" from his work at the studio. That included the scrapping of a Hugh Hefner biopic he was to direct with Jared Leto playing the recently-deceased Playboy founder.