Anna Daniels
As the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer shows, Diana seems to still be working within the world of art and antiquities, and she becomes acquainted with an archaeologist named Barbara Ann Minerva. Kristen Wiig portrays Barbara, who, over the course of the film, will take on the superpowered mantle of Cheetah.
The Wonder Woman 1984 trailer didn’t provide any shots of Barbara post-Cheetah transformation, and instead focused on presenting her as a new friend to Diana. At the start of the footage, the two women are seen chatting at a table, talking about whether they’ve been in love. Barbara, who says she’s in love “all the time,” has a magnificent, punkish ’80s energy to her — she wears studded animal print leather jackets, has big frizzy hair, and rocks round nerdy glasses. As an archeologist, she and Diana have a very natural path to meeting through a shared career industry, and are seen attending what appears to be the same slick parties with dignitaries in what we assume to be Washington D.C., where most major antiquities for the United States are kept in the Smithsonian.
Their early conversation implies that Diana is in a confessing mood (she admits to Barbara that she was in love a “long, long time ago”), and hints that Barbara is more than comfortable getting close to Diana. In the DC comics, Barbara actually knows about Diana’s superheroic identity, so that may well end up playing out in Wonder Woman 1984.
In the DC comics, Cheetah is a major antagonist against Diana, so the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer presenting them as new friends sets the stage for a tragedy. Gal Gadot also might’ve let something slip at CCXP when she mentioned in passing that Diana wants to save some of the antagonists she confronts in the film. Rumors have been floating around for a while that Barbara will become Cheetah as a result of slick businessman Maxwell Lord (more on him in a bit) granting her wish (by unknown means) to be like Wonder Woman, whom she admires more than anyone else. According to the rumors, Barbara’s new powers will frighten Maxwell, who reaches out to Diana (as Wonder Woman, presumably) for protection from Cheetah. Speculation also has it that Maxwell’s bargain for these services is using a mystical artifact in his possession to bring Steve Trevor back to Diana — the greatest wish to grant of all. If this is true, Cheetah and Wonder Woman are headed for a collision of circumstance, and it would indeed be in Diana’s nature to pity the afflicted and want to help her.
Written by: Looper
