Saturday Night Live alumn Kristen Wiig will play the role of the Cheetah in Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman 2, director Patty Jenkins confirmed today on Twitter.
SO WHO IS CHEETAH?
As one of Wonder Woman’s oldest foes, Cheetah has almost as many incarnations and retoolings as the heroine herself. In her original incarnation, crafted by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston, she had no superpowers, just a burning jealousy of Wonder Woman and a spotted cat costume.
But in her modern incarnation, Cheetah has been molded into something of a funhouse mirror of Wonder Woman’s drive and origins. She is also a woman who is endowed with godly power, but where Diana derives her powers from gods who she loves and respects, Cheetah sought power for more selfish reasons. And her godly patrons are anything but reciprocal to her “devotion.”
Barbara Anne Minerva is an archeologist who has dedicated her life to seeking out the divine in what most people consider to be legends — in the most recent retelling of Wonder Woman’s origin (written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott), Minerva was greatly motivated by meeting and working with Diana. The revelation that Themyscira and the Amazons were truly real drove her to seek out other evidence of ancient gods.
Eventually, she found it, in the form of the fictional god Urzkartaga, who transformed her body and endowed it with powers — great strength, razor claws and teeth, a predator’s hunting senses and superhuman speed — at a heavy price — uncontrollable bloodlust and cannibalistic urges.
