Patty Jenkins shot to fame after Charlize Theron won an Oscar for Monster, and it appeared as if she would enter the blockbuster realm with Thor: The Dark World a few years back. That didn't work out due to reported "creative differences", but it turns out that the filmmaker always wanted Wonder Woman. "When I made Monster and they asked me what I wanted to do [next], I immediately said, ‘I want to make Wonder Woman.' Everybody knew I wanted to make a superhero movie."
However, the movie was nowhere near happening back then (despite Jenkins being shown a script in 2005 when she was pregnant with her son and not planning to work for a while). Thor: The Dark World also didn't pan out, but Jenkins has no hard feelings about that. "I’m still so grateful to those guys for hiring a woman to direct f—ng Thor. Why would you do that? You don’t have to do that."
As for what led her to Wonder Woman, Jenkins explained: "There was a period of time when we had two very different visions and I wanted them to find the right director for the job. It turned out we had a shared vision after all." What was that vision? To tell what Entertainment Weekly describes as a straight-forward origin story which would be framed by a love story between Diana Prince and Steve Trevor. "I didn’t want to do anything more complicated. From my point of view, this was the movie I was talking to them about for about eight or nine years. I’ve met with 10 different people at Warner Bros and then it all came together in this one moment. Part of the reason I’m in such a good mood is this is the movie I’ve wanted to make my entire life. I feel so grateful that I get to be able to do this."