After a recent rumour suggested La La Land actress Emma Stone passed on the opportunity to play Cheetah, one of Wonder Woman’s chief antagonists, it hasn’t taken Warner Bros. and DC long to find another potential actress. Deadline has reported Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) is in talks to portray the character in the highly-anticipated Wonder Woman 2.
Director Patty Jenkins and WB are said to be looking for an A-list actress to star opposite Gal Gadot in the sequel. Wiig is known for her work on comedies like Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters, but has also taken on several dramatic roles, such as The Skeleton Twins or The Martian. Deadline also added that the deal should be finalized fairly quickly as the film will begin production this summer.
There have been several Cheetahs in the comics, but the one that will appear in the film is said to be the current one, Barbara Ann Minerva. She made her first appearance in 1987 and is a British archeologist who is granted the power of the cheetah by the ancient plant god Urzkartaga. The most recent run of the Wonder Woman comics in DC Rebirth by Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp saw Wonder Woman and Cheetah have an enlarged backstory where they used to be friends before Minerva was transformed and have an uneasy alliance as ‘frenemies’ in the present day.
Wonder Woman 2 is rumoured to take place in the 19080s during the Cold War. The film is set for release on November 1st, 2019, and sees Jenkins directing from a script she has written with DC’s Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham (The Expendables, Ant-Man).
