Wonder Woman movie heralds new era for female superheroes

Hollywood seems to be finally embracing female superheroes, as shown by recent news thatbig screen adaptations of Wonder Woman and the character of Ms. Marvel are in the works.

"There's always been a sense out there that men won't go to see movies with female superheroes," Forbes magazine's Hollywood correspondent Dorothy Pomerantz tells CBC.

But,thanks to the huge box office success of The Hunger Games moviesand Angelina Jolie's dark fantasy Maleficent, that attitude is finally changing.

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Maleficent made $750 million US at the global box office.

"On top of that, there is an outcry from the fans," said Pomerantz."They want to see these female superheroes. Not just women, it's men too."

The long-awaited Wonder Woman movie, based on the DC Comics superhero, is scheduled for release in 2017. It will star Israeli actor Gal Gadot in the title role andwill be directed by Michelle MacLaren, a Canadian-born producer/director known for her work on Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and The X-Files.

Marvel's first female lead

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios has its own female superhero film in the works.

The female version ofCaptain Marvel (and her alter egoCarol Danvers) will make her self-titled, big screendebut in 2018. She will be the firstfemale superhero to leada Marvel motion picture.

The iconic maleversion of Captain Marvel was first created by legendary comic artist Stan Leein the1960s.

The pressure on pop icons

Author Jill Lepore, who recently published TheSecret History of Wonder Woman, welcomes this new era of female superheroes in the movies. But, she warns, "because there are actually so few pop icons who are women fighting for women's rights, there's a lot of pressure on Wonder Woman as a character to deliver a great deal."

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Fansand critics will have to wait a couple of yearsto see if the results will lead to further acceptance of female superheroes in Hollywood. Or, if these movies flop at the box office, Pomerantz says, Hollywood might use it to reinforce the old stereotype that "female superheroes don't work."

Watch DeanaSumanac-Johnson'sfull report in the video above.