Wonder Woman 2: Does it need a main female villain?

Wonder Woman has already shown how a heroine can easily lead a strong story, so is it time for its sequel to do the same for a villainess?

The amount of confirmed information we have when it comes to Wonder Woman 2 is woefully small, frankly. We know Diana Prince will make her return to the big screen courtesy of Gal Gadot, and we know that Patty Jenkins is behind the camera. There have been rumors pointing to someone like Circe as the villain, and now That Hashtag Show (via io9) suggests that we’ll see Wonder Woman go up against Cheetah instead. After Doctor Poison’s supporting role in Wonder Woman, could — and should — the next frontier be revolutionizing how villainesses are treated, too?

To be fair, it’s arguable that Wonder Woman already did some work in this arena with Doctor Poison. She’s not the femme fatale we’ve come to expect of female antagonists at all; she’s certainly evil. But she didn’t occupy the central antagonist role, and Cheetah or Circe would presumably have that position in Wonder Woman 2.

Like Diana, the specific incarnation of Cheetah that That Hashtag Show mentions has a tie to gods, just not the same ones that created the Amazons. And in that way, the script could easily treat her as a dark reflection of Diana even more than Ares is in the original film. While she might not necessarily be as completely dangerous as Ares (both in terms of power and how weird CGI could make things), she has the capacity to let us work more with different aspects of Diana’s personality. Ares is about love versus war. Cheetah could focus more on twisted inspiration, considering the response the initial film had — and the Rebirth version of the character.

What would Diana Prince do when confronted with someone who became evil just because they wanted to be like her, enough to become the avatar of a god who might be able to kill the Godkiller herself? (Hey, it worked for The Incredibles. Just imagine what Patty Jenkins could do with similar themes based on the real-world reactions to Wonder Woman.)

It might not be the original storyline we here at Culturess predicted for the sequel, but it could be the perfect way to create a film that’s “totally different” from its predecessor while still wrestling with very topical themes.

Next: Star Wars: A sneak peek at The Last Jedi's deleted scenes

If Wonder Woman 2 wants to have a villainess take center stage, then let’s see her take center stage.