A Wonder Woman Legend Was Working On Canceled Game, Offers Heartfelt Tribute

Gail Simone, an award-winning writer known for her work on the DC franchise, has confirmed she was involved with the Wonder Woman game at Monolith that was just recently canceled.

Simone, the longest-running female writer on the Wonder Woman series, said she was asked to do long-term consulting on the game and jumped at the chance. "It was a perfect storm of stuff I adore," she said. "Wonder Woman, video games, and one of my favorite game studios: Monolith."

Simone went on to say Monolith's Wonder Woman game was "gorgeous and expansive." She said "every effort was made to make this not just a great game, but a great Wonder Woman game. A showpiece epic."

The writer praised the developers at Monolith for crafting such an impressive game, even if it ultimately didn't pan out.

"Everyone who worked on it brought their a-game. Programmers, artists, designers, everyone. I don't know that I have ever worked with a team that cared more about making sure the end product was perfect," she said. "It was a dream come true. Wonder Woman had a dream team and they put their all into it. They made sure it had Wonder Woman and DC lore on every aspect of the game. It was a thrill and honor to work with them."

Simone said she understands there is a lot of "finger-pointing going on" now around why the game was canceled, but everyone she worked with at Monolith and WB was "enthusiastic and supportive."

Games, TV shows, movies, and all other types of media projects fall apart regularly, for any number of reasons, and the Wonder Woman game joins them.

"Sometimes, you give your all and it doesn't work out. But that was an amazing team and I can only hope they continue to make brilliant games. Someone is going to snap them all up and set a new industry standard, I know it," Simone said.

Monolith's Wonder Woman game was announced in 2021, and more than $100 million was reportedly spent on it prior to its cancellation. In confirming the game's cancellation and the closure of Monolith, management said the game did not align with WB's new strategic pursuits, despite projects in the DC franchise being one of WB's four core pillars going forward for games.

WB management said it will focus on four major franchises: Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC, and Game of Thrones. As part of this new strategy of focusing on only the biggest franchises, WB is producing a Hogwarts Legacy sequel, while WB Games Montreal is said to be pitching a new Game of Thrones title. Rocksteady, meanwhile, may be plotting a new single-player Batman game. As for DC, studio boss James Gunn recently said some "really interesting" projects are coming in the gaming space, but not soon. As for the Mortal Kombat series, NetherRealm has not announced any new games, but it's expected the studio will continue the franchise with a new installment at some point.

In addition to the cancellation of Wonder Woman and closure of Monolith, WB is shuttering MultiVersus studio Player First Games and WB San Diego. MultiVersus is shutting down this May.

Warner Bros. Games' longtime boss, David Haddad, announced in January that he's leaving the company but will stay on for the next three months to help oversee the transition to a new leader. No such executive has been named yet for Haddad's replacement.