There is a new look at Kirsten Wiig as Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984, and it honestly has me really excited for what the film is going to bring to the character. An extremely fun supervillain, let’s get into who she is as a character a bit.
Barbara Minerva is an archeologist who would go to great lengths to get what she needs. Basically, think Indiana Jones, but while searching for the lost city of the Urzkartagan tribe, she ends up becoming part of a ritual by Chuma, the high priest, who turns her into the Cheetah God with the sacrifice of her friend and partner, Dr. Leavens. How much of Minerva’s story is going to be part of Wonder Woman 1984, and how much will change in adaptation, is still a mystery, but Cheetah is one of the most interesting supervillains.
Dedicated to finding a sense of power and immortality, Barbara is the perfect archetype for what we consider to be a villain. She isn’t someone who has good intentions behind what she’s doing. She wants to live forever and have that sense of youthfulness no matter the cost before her—which makes for a great villain against Diana Prince, someone who is forever young and powerful.
But the ritual that gave Cheetah her power had stipulations, turning a virgin into this immortal being. Minerva? She didn’t fall into that category, and so, with the exception of a full moon, she’s weak and frail—which kind of makes sense from what we’ve seen in the trailers for Wonder Woman 1984. Wiig, as Minerva, doesn’t really look like someone who would end up being a supervillain in any sense.
Compare that to the image going around of Wiig in full Cheetah mode? Not the same kind of woman by any stretch of the imagination.
The DC League on Twitter shared a look at Wiig as Cheetah, and honestly? It’s kind of hot.
Nouvel aperçu de Cheetah dans ‘Wonder Woman 1984’. pic.twitter.com/TZnUyjd6Tw
— DC League (@TheDCLeague) July 10, 2020
Cheetah discovers Diana when she makes an appearance and then learns of the Lasso of Truth. Determined to take it from her, she tries to find a means of getting it as Barbra, but then eventually has to try to take on Wonder Woman as Cheetah. Again, I don’t know how much of Cheetah’s story is going to end up in Wonder Woman 1984, but it’s going to be quite the matchup between the two, especially with Wiig looking pretty incredible as Cheetah.
Minerva is a fun villain in general because she often connects with people like Lex Luthor or the Joker to come after our heroes, and while neither of them are in 1984, it could set up future connections between the Superman and Batman villains and Cheetah as DC’s interconnected movie universe finds its path forward. The more I look at Wiig as Cheetah, though, the more I’m concerned that I’m going to end up really loving her as the villain.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is also just another addition into the list of villains that we’re all going to be obsessed with. I blame Kristen Wiig.
(via IGN, image: Warner Bros.)
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