One of the defining moments of the 2017 hit Wonder Woman was the death of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), when he sacrificed himself aboard an exploding airplane to save countless lives. It was a brave and heroic moment that taught Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) the good and the bad of the humanity she had newly sworn to protect, and gave an already great movie (still DC's only post-Christopher Nolan masterpiece) an infusion of emotion.
Well, guess who's back? Steve Trevor — at least according to Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins, who tweeted a surprise image of the character on Wednesday. The picture shows Pine looking quite alive and very much a part of the new movie's '80s setting, just based on fashion alone (tube socks, shorts above the knee, puffy hair). Conspiracy theorists may speculate that this is perhaps a dream sequence (which, who knows, it still could be), but would Jenkins go through the trouble of the first major image reveal being of Steve if it was just a dream?
To say this is blowing things up after blowing up Steve in the first film is an understatement. So what happened? Did he survive that explosion high in the sky? Did Wonder Woman tap into some of her Greek goddess genetics (let's not forget she's the daughter of Zeus) and use some unknown power to alter reality?
I hate to bring up Justice League considering how badly that film capitalised on Wonder Woman's good will and box-office momentum, but remember those scenes with Ben Affleck's Batman? When Batfleck confronted Wonder Woman about her leadership and said she remained idle and hidden from the world for decades and didn't come back out until Lex Luthor stole a picture of her and her dead boyfriend, that was more or less a present-day confirmation that Steve was still dead. So what gives?