WB Games had just made headlines by closing several games and studios. One title that was axed was Monolith's Wonder Woman game, which was developed by the same team behind the Shadow of Mordor games.
Even the devs were caught off guard when the studio closed, and more has been revealed about why Wonder Woman was shelved and why WB decided to shut everything down.
‘An Impossible Situation’
In a recent episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily (via @Okami13_), video game journalist Jason Schreier briefly details the whole situation regarding WB Games and how it resulted in the shutting down of Wonder Woman.
As it turns out, the ‘impossible situation’ was that Monolith had to struggle with the fact that Wonder Woman got rebooted. The studio had a change in leadership amidst all the chaos because several of its key figures had quit. WB Games had forced them to work on WW while they canceled an original IP that the studio was working on in 2021, which led to much of the leadership leaving.
Wonder Woman was said to initially have the ‘Nemesis System in reverse’ in which Diana would be going around making alliances with tribe leaders by talking with them—compared to the Shadow of Mordor games, where players had to fight for leadership. This idea was eventually scrapped to make a God of War-style action game.
The decision to cancel the game came after WB Games' horrible 2024 year, with Suicide Squad losing $200 million and MultiVersus and Quidditch: Champions losing $100 million.
Cliffhanger Games and Black Panther
Though many of Monolith's devs lost their jobs, many of the studio’s former leaders formed a new studio called Cliffhanger Games and teamed up with EA. The team is currently working on a Black Panther title.
While it’s unclear what the BP game could be about, Cliffhanger’s Kevin Stephens did say this about the title:
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich superhero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do.”
Who knows, maybe they decided just to take their scrapped Wonder Woman concept and apply it to Black Panther. After all, the game looks to be taking place in a secret society as well (Wakanda=Themyscira), and Wakanda has also been established to have several tribes, and maybe it will be T’Challa’s job to try and unite them all for a common cause.
Then again, this is just speculation, but there are too many similarities to ignore.
When is DC Making a Comeback?
Going back to Wonder Woman, though, it seems like WB Games will undergo a restructuring after the exit of David Haddad. Some say Haddad has had a horrible track record ever since taking over, with his only hit being Hogwarts Legacy.
Maybe someone will pick up the pieces of Wonder Woman later, but fans are waiting for the dust to settle after all of these studio closures.