David E. Kelley: Why Adrianne Palicki Was Cast as ‘Wonder Woman’

David E. Kelley has revealed how actress Adrianne Palicki came to be cast as Diana Prince in NBC’s much-hyped Wonder Woman remake.

In a new interview with New York Magazine, the series creator says he originally didn’t believe DC Comics stood a chance of finding the right actress for the iconic part.

“She’s got to be strong, smart, emotionally accessible — and oh yeah, an Amazon! Good luck,” he quips, adding that he was prepared to compromise the character’s physicality for the sake of talent “because there’s too many layers for this character to also demand that she be nearly six feet tall.”

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That changed when he met the relatively unknown Palicki. He says he knew she was right for the role when she stood up and looked him in the eye during her audition.

“I knew during the course of the conversation that this was Wonder Woman,” he says. “I just knew it. I had an instinctive feeling that this was her. So then she read. And she was. And she is.”

NBC recently revealed the first shot of Palicki as Wonder Woman to mixed reviews. While Fox News criticised the outfit’s lack of patriotism, Lynda Carter, star of the ’70s Wonder Woman series, praised the new look.

In the interview, Kelley also says he originally turned down Wonder Woman because it was outside his comfort zone.

“It’s not really what I do; it’s not a genre that’s in my wheelhouse,” he explains.

He says it was the prospect of exploring the main character’s complexities that changed his mind.

“When I started thinking about all the complications and potential layers to this superhero, I just got more and more intrigued,” he says. “It was also something I was a little bit afraid of. That’s good, too. Any writer should get out of his or her comfort zone, and this was way outside of mine.”