Wonder Woman 1984’s take on Barbara Minerva is perfectly ’80s

Oversize sweaters! Side ponytails! Big round glasses! Wonder Woman 1984 has captured the ’80s nerd with Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva.

She probably won’t become the next Barb from Stranger Things, but it’s not hard to see how Wonder Woman 1984 might have had Shannon Purser’s season 1 breakout character in mind when creating the look for Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah — also known as Barbara Minerva.

Patty Jenkins tweeted out the first photo of Wiig in character today, which shows Barbara all on her own in what seems to be a museum exhibit focused on African animals. Check out the giraffe, lion, and antelope that are all visible in the shot.

What’s not easily seen, though, is a cheetah … well, unless you count Barbara herself, who is standing with all the light focused on here. This seems to be before she actually becomes the villain in question, though, just because Cheetah is usually shown as, to quote Catwoman, “more cat, less woman.” (Some continuities show her only changing sometimes, although it usually becomes a fixed thing.)

The idea of a museum might just show how Barbara and Diana originally cross paths as well. In Wonder Woman, we see that she works at the Louvre; it’s not impossible that she’d do similar work at the Smithsonian or a similar museum in the ’80s.

Perhaps Barbara is at the museum to try and get support for her taking a trip to Africa to do some more research, only to discover the rituals that make her become the Cheetah? As we noted when Wiig’s casting was first announced, Wiig is not really a particularly threatening figure, and the costuming here absolutely plays that up. She almost looks wistful, honestly, and not like someone who will eventually become a bloodthirsty supervillain.

Check out the photo below:

Next: Is Wonder Woman '84 going to let Diana fly?

What’s your theory on how Diana and Barbara will first meet? Will Diana end up accompanying her to Africa?