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Debate of the Day: Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman?

gal gadot

News broke yesterday that not only was Diana Prince/Wonder Woman going to be in Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman feature, but she’d actually been cast. Actress Gal Gadot, seen above, landed the part, leaving everyone to ask…who?

Even as an avid fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, I didn’t know her by name, just as “that supermodel looking Israeli girl dating the Asian guy” in the last few Fast and Furious movies. She was (spoilers) killed off in the last movie, as was her beau Han, and now she’s free to move on to bigger projects. Way bigger, from the looks of it.

On first glance, you’d never peg her as Wonder Woman, which is why the casting decision seems so controversial. Wonder Woman is traditionally thought of as black-haired, blue-eyed and curvy. Gadot may be gorgeous, but I wouldn’t say she fits that description (though it depends which picture of her you’re looking at for that last category). And while superheroes have changed over the years from casting to costumes, they generally still look like how you’d imagine them to, see Cavill’s Superman or even Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. But Gadot? It seems like an odd fit.

Further interesting is the fact that she’s Israeli, and has a fairly pronounced accent. I’m not sure if she’ll Americanize herself for the role, or just be pretending all Amazonians talk like they’re from Israel.

I think we don’t know enough about Gadot or Snyder/Nolan’s vision for her character to make a judgement call on whether she’ll be right for the part or not. As cool as someone like Gina Carano is, I understand not wanting to give the part to her as though she’s tough and beautiful and looks the part, I don’t think she has the charisma necessary for the part or the subsequent franchise.

Really, we don’t actually know what’s going on with DC movies from here. Will Affleck’s Batman be given his own film after this? Will Gadot’s Wonder Woman, as she’s supposed to have only a small part in the upcoming crossover? Or are we leaping straight into JLA after this?

What do you make of Gadot’s casting?

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7 Comments

  1. I can’t comment on the actress. My first thought was, “Really, another superhero? How are they going to pull that off?”. In fairness, the Avengers did a great job with a diverse cast of heroes. On the other hand, the Avengers also had at least one movie introducing nearly every one of those characters. Good luck to DC, I hope this movie does well but they seem to be setting the bar quite high.

  2. In all the images I’ve seen she looks far to wispy to play a battle tested amazon warrior. She will need to do some serious work on her physique to pull this off.

    She also seems to be lacking the “presence” of a iconic character.
    Hopefully she can work on that as well.

    I assume she was hired for budgetary reasons. A superhero movie with this many people can get quite pricey. And since she is a relatively green actor her asking price is probably low.

  3. It looks like they’re gonna have Spiderman 3 syndrome – trying to introduce too many characters in one film. Like cypher20 said, The Avengers worked because we weaned ourselves on to the team, we weren’t overloaded with them all at once. DC seems to be accelerating the JLA timeline too much, and I think they’re going to suffer because of it.

  4. I’m not gonna judge the movie until I see it honestly. In these days I’ve figured not to judge any actor in any movie until I’ve seen it for myself. Sure, she looks kinda skinny for the role but maybe she’ll buff up for it? Hopefully in having no expectations, I won’t be disappointed. The good news is though….she’s hot.

  5. I like her very much. I can get behind seeing a skinny girl playing a mitological heroine who has superpowers (come on, it’s fantasy after all). I know the internet wanted Jaime Alexander from Thor, but I radder see someone new in a superhero role than DC reciclyng Marvel. Gina Carano looks right was WW but she looks wooden in every role she’s in. I’m Ok with it, and very happy they’re introducing characters like this. I do not want movies like Iron Man 2, Thor or Captain America that had no purpose whatsoever than set the path for a greater film. Those were fun but without a own theme and even it’s own personality.

  6. Hey Paul, can you please make spoilers way more obvious (BOLDING, CAPITAL LETTERS, SOME WARNING AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE). This is the second time I’ve been spoiled coming to the site to an article completely unrelated to the tv show/movie that I’m reading about. The first was the end of game of thrones season 1, I was mighty pissed about that.

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