It’s fair to say that Gal Gadot’s work as Wonder Woman was a cornerstone of the DCEU from the moment she made her first appearance as the superhero in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Since then, a further three outings in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and in Patty Jenkins’ excellent Wonder Woman and the sequel Wonder Woman 1984 confirmed Gadot’s status as one of the DCEU’s biggest hitters.
Update July 7, 2023: This article has been updated by Valerie Parker with even more roles Gal Gadot could fill in the upcoming DCU.
However, a third Wonder Woman film has been confirmed to be dead in the water after the 2022 leadership changes at DC Studios, which saw James Gunn and Peter Safran take over the DCU and develop a ten-year plan that would include a massive reboot of the franchise. While Gadot did appear as Wonder Woman in cameo roles for both Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash, there is a chance it could be the end of her time as Wonder Woman. It is far from certain what role or roles Gadot will play in the DCU moving forward if she should continue with the studio. Here are some roles she could play in the new DCU.
Catwoman
We’ll start off with an obvious role. As one of Batman’s most devious enemies (and, along with the Joker, the oldest since she first appeared in comic book form in 1940), the character of Catwoman has undergone several evolutions over the decades. Julie Neymar’s origination of the role during the 1960s Batman television series portrayed her as scheming but also vulnerable, with several episodes showing her in clinches with Adam West’s not entirely resistant Caped Crusader. Zoë Kravitz also played up the vulnerabilities of the character in The Batman earlier this year, winning plaudits across the board for a rounded, nuanced, and believable performance.
While it’s tempting to suggest that Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal of the character in Batman Returns was definitive, other versions have teased out shades of meaning in a role that remains, like that of Batman, endlessly malleable. Perhaps Gadot’s Catwoman might revisit the beats of Anne Hathaway’s portrayal in Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed The Dark Knight Rises, which made Selina Kyle a con artist with murky motives.
Poison Ivy
Staying with Gotham City, if Poison Ivy should ever make it back into a movie, Gadot would be a shoo-in for the role. The character’s recent appearances in the Arrowverse have been largely successful, with Nicole Kang’s portrayal of the character garnering praise in particular. But for movie fans, the non-appearance of Poison Ivy in the DCEU is an important piece of unfinished business. Most of Batman’s other famous antagonists have made their way onto the big screen over the last twenty years, from Colin Farrell’s Penguin to Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul. Poison Ivy, however, inexplicably remains on the sidelines.
Another big-screen outing would also redress the character’s previous appearance in film. In Joel Schumacher’s infamous Batman and Robin, which, though it turned a profit, was recognized at the time as the worst of the four 1990s Batman films by a distance in spite of its stellar casting (George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger), and has since been hailed as the worst movie ever made.
To be fair to Uma Thurman, who played the character, there was little to work with in the script, and Schumacher’s directorial decisions resulted in a film that accentuated the toyetic possibilities of the characters and setting to no good purpose other than selling merchandise. It was a risible showing for a character that has been embraced by fans as one of the DCU’s very best villains, and Gadot would doubtless bring a sense of gravitas to the character that was noticeably lacking in the 1997 film.
Mina Murray
This choice might seem a little out of the left field, but there are compelling reasons why Gadot would be triumphant in the role of Mina Murray. Dracula fans know all about Mina Murray, who is one of the main characters in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel (she marries the novel’s protagonist Jonathan Harker) and is frequently depicted in film and TV adaptations. But it is in Murray’s guise as a member of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that Gadot would really shine.
In this incarnation of the character, Mina is a chemist with vampiric powers after an encounter with Dracula. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s story was famously committed to celluloid back in 2003, when, in spite of an impressive cast including Sean Connery, Jason Flemyng, and Peta Wilson (La Femme Nikita) in the role of Mina, critics remained unmoved by the film’s uneven pacing and convoluted plot.
As it happens, a Hulu reboot was announced in May 2022, though it’s unclear what the status of this project is after the announcement of Gunn and Safran’s takeover of DC Studios that summer. Should the project still be in development, it would likely have to be considered Elseworlds, as it was set to be produced by 20th Century Studios and Hulu, so is unlikely to fall under the DCU banner. Should the project continue, is it too much to ask that Gadot find her way into the cast as Mina? Wilson’s work in the 2003 film was hamstrung by a somewhat underwritten part, and we continue to wait for the definitive portrayal. The actor who brought Wonder Woman into the twenty-first century is a natural choice.
Veronica Cale
Going beyond the well-known, it would also be enjoyable to see Gadot introduce a new character to the silver screen, and why not start with a villain in the Wonder Woman universe? Veronica Cale was meant to make her live-action television debut in the Wonder Woman TV series that was developed by David E. Kelley for NBC and starred Adrianne Palicki as Diana, with Elizabeth Hurley set to portray Cale. However, the series was never picked up after the pilot phase.
Veronica Cale is one of Wonder Woman’s comic book villains introduced in 2003 and was meant to be a ‘Lex Luthor’ type foe for Diana. Cale resents Diana’s position in society and the fact that she is a symbol of a paragon of feminism to much of the world, both of which Cale does not believe she deserves. She also envies Diana’s power and clearly wishes she could be Wonder Woman. A talented writer and director could play on the past and Gadot’s replacement as Wonder Woman, intertwining the idea that the actor might resent her replacement as much as her character resents the woman she wishes she could be.
Roulette (aka Veronica Sinclair)
Another fun potential villain turn for Gadot could be in the guise of Roulette, aka Veronica Sinclair. This shrewd businesswoman likes to capture heroes and force them to fight each other in a type of gladiatorial arena for the amusement of other supervillains, who bet on the outcome. She even managed to capture the members of the Justice League in her very first encounter with the team and forced them to fight each other.
The character of Roulette has seen two iterations on the small screen but has never made a big screen appearance. In a season 9 episode of Smallville, the character was played by Steph Song, and managed to capture Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and stole $3 million from him. Though he did escape and came to a truce with Roulette at the time, she later returned to her old tricks in season 10. In a Supergirl season 2 episode, the character was played by Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse, The 100), and Supergirl was captured by the devious villain and forced to fight a monster in a sort of Fight Club-esque club where she forces aliens to fight to the death.
The character of Roulette may seem like a small-time villain when compared to the likes of Lex Luthor or Steppenwolf, but her method of forcing characters to face off would be an interesting dynamic to throw into a future Justice League film. Using the setting of a cage match to force characters like Superman and Batman to address the issues that usually arise between them in every adaptation. Having Gadot, an actor who formerly played one of the leading members of the team, as the one behind the entire encounter could add a fun layer for the audience to unpack.
Talia al Ghul
Sticking with villains, another character Gadot might step into the footsteps of is Talia al Ghul, the daughter of infamous Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul. An assassin and member of the League of Assasins like her father, Talia al Ghul is the mother to Bruce Wayne’s biological child Damian Wayne, already announced as the partner to Batman in the forthcoming The Brave and the Bold, directed by Andy Muschietti (The Flash). The introduction of this character in the film leaves the door wide open to include his mother as well.
Talia al Ghul previously made her big screen debut in Christopher Nolan’s celebrated The Dark Knight trilogy in the final film, The Dark Knight Rises, played by Marion Cotillard, and Lexa Doig took on the challenge in the television series Arrow. However, neither story ever dipped its toes into the romantic relationship between Bruce and Talia that lead to the birth of Damian. A DCU featuring Gadot in the role could feature a dark storyline showing Damian’s upbringing as a member of the League of Assasins and a struggle between their questionable practices and his eventual path to becoming his father’s partner.
Vicki Vale
Should Gadot wish to take off the superhero suit and enter the realm of the superheroes as a femme fatale, one could look no further than one of Batman’s paramours, Vicki Vale. A character very similar to Superman’s counterpart, Lois Lane, Vicki was often reporting on Batman’s activities and is written as constantly on the verge of uncovering Batman’s true identity.
Vicki Vale made her live-action film debut in 1989’s Batman by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton, and was portrayed by Kim Basinger. Though the character has played a major role in comic books since her debut in Batman #49 in late 1948, she didn’t survive to reemerge in the second Burton-era film, Batman Returns, and was replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer’s iteration of Catwoman as the new love interest, with only a throwaway line informing the audience that Vicki was unable to reconcile the Bruce Wayne/Batman dual identity. Revisiting the character and giving her the chance to grow and shine as she has done in over a half century’s worth of comic books could prove an exciting challenge for Gadot.
Zatanna
One of the characters highest on the list that people would like to see a live-action film interpretation of is Zatanna Zatara (usually known only as Zatanna). Though she’s appeared in various animated features and series from Justice League Dark to Teen Titans GO!, as well as appearances in the final few seasons of Smallville, as played by Serinda Swan, the character has yet to make her big screen live-action debut. The sorceress and member of the Homo Magi (a sub-race of magic-wielding humans) could be a fun and exciting choice as a potential for Gadot.
Introducing magic to the live-action DCU would be a fun and exciting addition to the big-screen DC universe that most of the general audience has yet to see. Zatanna’s ties in the comics range from membership in the Justice League to a former relationship and partnership with Constantine, which would lead to Zatanna bridging the gap between both the lighter and darker sides of the DCU.
It was previously announced that a live-action film centering on Zatanna was in the works at DC, with the Oscar-winning writer of Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell (who also directed the film), behind the adaptation. When Batgirl was scrapped by Warner Bros for tax purposes, it was announced that Zatanna was no longer headed to the Warner Streaming service (then HBO Max, now simply Max) and was being shopped around to other platforms. However, since this information became public in October 2022, no further updates have been forthcoming. If the film is still in progress in some form or another, this might be another exciting way to incorporate Gadot into the new DCU.
The Engineer
When James Gunn announced the first slate of projects in the new DCU that he and Co-CEO Peter Safran had settled on, one of the most surprising projects confirmed to be heading to the big screen was The Authority. This team of heroes fits a gray area in the DCU’s Chapter One – Gods and Monsters, as from different perspectives, they can fill either role.
The Authority are a team of heroes with a morally gray agenda. Like Batman and Superman, they wish to protect the world, only they want to do it at any cost. This relatively unknown team of heroes fits well into Gunn’s existing superhero slate from both Marvel and DC. Before the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, very few outside of comic book fandom had ever heard of the team, and Gunn was able to launch them into one of the beloved franchises in the MCU. When he took on The Suicide Squad, Gunn introduced members even the most hardcore comic fans had little knowledge of, alongside powerhouses like Harley Quinn, and managed to even spin off a successful series focused on The Peacemaker. Given this history, it seems unsurprising that Gunn referred to a film adaptation of The Authority as one of his “passion projects.”
The most likely role Gadot could fill in this group of questionable heroes is that of The Engineer, aka Angela Spica. After replacing her blood with Nanotechnology, The Engineer became an overpowered character who literally has all of human knowledge within her, having absorbed the entire internet into her bloodstream. With her liquid metal body, The Engineer can shape-shift and form metal objects out of her body, as well as use radio-induced telepathy and technopathy. It could be a fun level-up for Gadot to go from one powerful female character to an arguably even more powerful one.
Wonder Woman
As the old adage goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Gadot’s portrayal of the Amazonian Princess has been an iconic and powerful presence across the DCEU, and there’s really no good reason why the character needs a complete reboot at this time. With so many other characters needing to be reintroduced to audiences with their new shiny DCU faces, what would it hurt to keep one glowing example of the previous DC Comics universe?
Sony and Marvel have proven that nostalgia can deliver at the box office in a big way with the appearance of former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and fans would undoubtedly love to see a return of Gadot’s iteration of Diana Prince as one tie to the film world that existed before this new one. The Flash introduced the concept of Elseworlds to the DC film universe, and Gadot could be the tie that binds them. If J. Jonah Jameson can be played by J.K. Simmons in every iteration of the character, why can’t Gadot be the same at DC with Wonder Woman?
Wonder Woman was easily the best of the DCEU films and was one of the best origin story films of any comic book film produced so far. It would be tough to top, especially so soon. Gadot also deserves more time to deliver the more balanced and nuanced character that was delivered in Patty Jenkins’s two Wonder Woman films so that the audience might forget just how often the male writers and directors of the DCEU reduced her to simply an object of the male gaze, as was the case with her last two appearances in the franchise.
