First Trailer for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Centers Women, Polyamory, and Kink

I cannot. Stop. Watching. This. Trailer. Check out the first trailer for the upcoming biopic from Annapurna Pictures, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, which tells the story of the people behind Diana of Themyscira.

After the intriguing teaser trailer that was released last month, we’re finally getting our first look at this glimpse into the life of William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman. That glimpse includes a look at the major relationships in his life: the one he had with his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and the one they had with their lover and long-term partner, Olive Byrne.

Not only was the polyamorous triad dynamic in which they engaged controversial and stigmatizing as hell, but Marston was also kinky and incorporated that, not just into his relationships, but into his Wonder Woman comic. It seems like this film will be getting into the difficulties faced by Marston, Holloway, and Byrne as they attempted to build a family and live their lives, as well as Wonder Woman’s reception, and how those comics were controversial at the time because of the violence and the bondage.

There has been a bunch of writing on Marston and his “wonder women” in relation to kink and polyamory, but we know very little about what their actual lives were like. The facts we know are that they lived together, Holloway and Byrne each bore children by Marston and the children were all raised together, and Holloway and Byrne lived together after Marston’s death until death separated them when Byrne died in 1985. I love that this film is not only attempting to paint a more full picture about what their lives were like, but that it’s doing so compassionately without sensationalizing the relationship.

After all, the film is giving us images like this:

Marston, Holloway, and Byrne at dinner with their kids. A family.

I’m very much looking forward to what looks like will be fierce performances from Rebecca Hall as Holloway and Bella Heathcote as Byrne, as well as the intriguing Luke Evans. Director Angela Robinson clearly has compassion for these people and is telling their story with respect. It’ll be cool to see something be as open about their relationship as they likely wanted to be.

And as someone who’s interested in comics history in general, I’m looking forward to seeing the film’s take on comics censorship.

Will you be seeing Professor Marston and the Wonder Women?

(via io9, image: screencap/Annapurna Pictures)

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