Chris Pine Explains How Steve Trevor's Role Has Changed In Wonder Woman 1984

Chris Pine looks shocked as Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman 1984 official trailer

It was the big question everyone had when Chris Pine was announced for Wonder Woman 1984: How?! How does Steve Trevor come back after Wonder Woman? Not only did Steve die in the first movie, it was set in World War I. So even if Steve hadn't been killed, he'd still most likely be dead or least very old by 1984. He's only human, unlike Diana.

Well, no one involved in Wonder Woman 1984 is going to spoil the How Does Steve Return mystery before the movie's June 2020 opening, but Chris Pine did explain more about how Steve Trevor's role in Diana Prince's story has changed from the first Wonder Woman movie to the sequel:

In the first movie, I played the world-weary soldier who has seen all the depravity that humankind is capable of displaying. And in this one I get to be much more wide-eyed and joyful. My role is really just as a friend, lover, boyfriend-cum-bodyguard who’s trying his best to help Diana on her mission. I’m like the Watson to her Holmes.

Watson to her Holmes! I like that. That's the word from Chris Pine to EW, which put Wonder Woman 1984 on its cover this week. We now have new info on lonely Diana Prince, Kristen Wiig's new villain Cheetah, and Pedro Pascal's Maxwell Lord.

But if we're going to talk about Chris Pine, let's talk about Chris Pine -- or hear what director Patty Jenkins has to say about Chris Pine and why she wanted him as Steve Trevor to begin with:

He’s not beta at all. He’s a super alpha who can absolutely wear his discomfort on his sleeve. So, from day one, I was always saying that it should almost be like Wonder Woman meets Indiana Jones, where Indiana would never be emasculated. Chris just very naturally has that quality. You can tell by meeting him that he’s warm and he’s chill and he truly appreciates women.

It's part of why Patty Jenkins keeps casting Chris Pine in so many of her projects! Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot told EW there was no chemistry test with Pine, they just got lucky on that connection, which fueled so much of the first Wonder Woman movie:

Honestly, we just had it…. And where other men could be intimidated by the fact that they’re not, you know, the hero hero that men usually are, with Chris he enjoys it, and it challenges him in a way that is so much fun and so funny.

I still remember appreciating the dry wit of Chris Pine's perfectly timed "Well, that's neat" reply from the first Wonder Woman movie -- after Gal Gadot's Diana said she had no father and her mother sculpted her from clay and was brought to life by Zeus.

To Chris Pine, the love story of Diana and Steve isn't shoehorned into the movie to tick a box, it's integral to the warm, loving character of Wonder Woman herself:

I think sometimes superhero films may feel they have to fit in a love story just to tick that box. Whereas in this, it’s part and parcel of the spine of the lead character. And that is Wonder Woman — she leads with love and compassion and protectiveness, and these qualities that I think are nurtured by a good strong relationship.

The first trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 came out in early December 2019 and opened with Diana talking to her new friend Barbara Ann Minerva (who becomes sexy Cheetah) about love. Love is a big deal for Wonder Woman, and love is how I felt about that first trailer -- showing her swinging from lightning, rocking new Golden Eagle Armor, enjoying fireworks with Steve, and doing whatever she is doing on that mission that reminds Chris Pine of Sherlock Holmes.

Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins is done making the movie, including all but minor tweaks in editing. She is the one who asked Warner Bros. to give them the June 2020 release date, since 2017's Wonder Woman had good luck opening in June, but then she regretted asking to delay the movie since it was finished early and she's excited for fans to see it. Wonder Woman 2 is scheduled to open in theaters on June 5, 2020. Here's more of what we know so far about the sequel.

Gina Carbone

Gina grew up in Massachusetts and California in her own version of The Parent Trap. She went to three different middle schools, four high schools, and three universities -- including half a year in Perth, Western Australia. She currently lives in a small town in Maine, the kind Stephen King regularly sets terrible things in, so this may be the last you hear from her.