A U.N. official has stated that Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship on behalf of women’s empowerment was always intended to end this month.

When news broke this week that Wonder Woman’s tenure as an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls for the United Nations was abruptly ending on Friday, less than two months after the October 21 ceremony for her appointment (see “Wonder Woman's Term as U.N. Ambassador Abruptly Ends”), many linked the decision to protest over the character.

However, according to U.N. official Jeffrey Brez, the U.N. always intended to end the appointment this month. "We always knew it would end in December,” he told NPR. "Soon after the launch we said, what day should it actually end on? And we decided on December 16 because after that, the holidays were coming up, and it didn't make sense to continue the campaign into the holiday season."

This seems to contradict earlier statements from both the U.N. and DC Comics. In late October, Maher Nasser, the U.N. official who brokered the partnership between the U.N. and DC, told NPR that "As long as there's momentum in the campaign we'll move forward. They have committed to a year." In their own press release about the naming ceremony, DC called the partnership a “year-long campaign.”

In his conversation with NPR, Brez indicated that the announcement of Wonder Woman’s termination was made public so abruptly as a result of a random call from a Reuters reporter checking in on the campaign. Further, Brez told Reuters that campaigns featuring fictional characters are short-lived, citing a climate change campaign that made Angry Birds characters ambassadors for a single day.

Dozens of U.N. employees had protested at U.N. headquarters the day of the ceremony, and nearly 45,000 people had signed an online petition opposed to Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship. The opposition focused on the character’s figure and costume, arguing that an overtly sexualized image was inappropriate for a campaign focused on women’s equality and that the character was not culturally encompassing.

Others raised concerns over the U.N.’s partnership with a for-profit company. On October 17, just days before the naming ceremony, a reporter inquired about the nature of the partnership during the U.N.’s daily press briefing, asking if DC had paid for Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship.

A U.N. spokesperson shot down such conjecture, but people remained apprehensive, citing DC’s ongoing 75th Anniversary events for the character (see “Wonder Woman Profile Raised in 75th Year”) and the upcoming film starring Gal Gadot (see “The 'Wonder Woman' Comic-Con Trailer”) as evidence of a commercial agenda.

The end of Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship has done little to ameliorate concerns within the U.N. about gender equity, but for their part, DC still intends to proceed with a special edition Wonder Woman comic centered on female empowerment.