[WARNING - This article contains SPOILERS for Wonder Woman as well as DC Comics' Wonder Woman Rebirth.]
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Wonder Woman is certainly having her moment. Her first ever feature film has debuted to thunderous acclaim and continues to break records at the box office. The overwhelmingly positive response to the film, both critically and commercially, makes it the unequivocal success Warner Bros. so desperately needed for the DC Extended Universe.
Interest in the Amazon princess is at an all time high, and though Diana will return in this November's Justice League, a proper Wonder Woman sequel is already guaranteed. Director Patty Jenkins is expected to return (though nothing's official yet) as is star Gal Gadot, and it's been suggested the sequel will move away from the early 20th-century setting to something more contemporary and American. However, producer Charles Roven is quoted as saying "nothing has been written," meaning that any details surrounding a Wonder Woman sequel can potentially change between now and the start of production. For our part, we've argued that any Wonder Woman sequel should utilize the huge time gap between the end of Wonder Woman and Diana's first appearance in Batman V Superman, turning her sequel films into Justice League prequels.
Additionally, a Wonder Woman sequel doesn't necessarily need to be set around a war. Sure, as a warrior created to kill the God of War, Diana is forever linked with battle, but throughout her 70+ year publication history, Wonder Woman has gone on many different kinds of adventures. And with the superhero genre continually evolving, a Wonder Woman sequel would be better served by exploring new ideas rather than retreading old ones. (See the Captain America film series, which followed up a WWII action-adventure with a modern day spy thriller.)
With that in mind, Wonder Woman may have already planted the seeds for a sequel during the present day scenes which bookend the film. In these scenes, Diana is shown at The Lourve in an office adorned with ancient weaponry and other artifacts, presumably working there in come capacity for the museum's archeological department. And if that's the case, then it seems only too likely that working in this field would bring Diana into contact with one Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, an archeologist better known by another name -- Cheetah.
Wonder Woman's Friend & Foe
When we discuss possibilities for a superhero movie sequel, much of the discussion inevitably surrounds the villain. In Wonder Woman, Diana already went head-to-head with arguably her most powerful enemy when she fought and defeated Ares, the God of War. But Ares isn't Diana's most iconic villain, he isn't her Joker or Lex Luthor. That would be Cheetah, a woman cursed with superhuman strength and speed as well as the appearance and insatiable hunger of a cheetah. And though Cheetah has had several identities over the years, the most persistent and popular is the Barbara Ann version of the character.
Created by writer Len Wein and artist George Perez in 1987, Barbara Ann began as a selfish and ambitious character who becomes obsessed with stealing Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, believing it capable of curing her condition. That origin, however, was tweaked in the recent Wonder Woman Rebirth series by Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, and Nicola Scott. Barbara Ann is still an ambitious archeologist, obsessed with finding hard evidence of the mythological -- like the Amazons and their patrons, the gods -- but her relationship with Diana doesn't begin with the two as established adversaries, but rather as friends.
In DC Comics' new Rebirth continuity, a pre-curse Barbara Ann meets Diana when the Amazon first arrives from Themiscyra. Diana isn't yet able to speak English, so Dr. Minerva is summoned to help facilitate communication, using her understanding of ancient languages. Barbara Ann -- along with Steve Trevor and Etta Candy -- then becomes one of Diana's first friends, helping her acclimate to life in our modern world. It isn't until later that their relationship sours, forced to become adversaries when Diana is manipulated and Barbara Ann cursed.
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Urzkartaga & The Cheetah's Curse
Diana's arrival only fuels Barbara Ann's obsession with the mythological, leading her to undertake an expedition to Africa to explore an ancient temple of the god, Urzkartaga. Having become friends with an actual Amazon, Barbara Ann has had her beliefs confirmed, now wondering "if the gods of Greek myth are real, then how many others?" Diana urges Barbara Ann not to go, insisting that gods are not to be trusted and that there are "few stories where drawing a god's attention brings a happy ending."
Stubborn as always, Barbara Ann goes on her expedition anyway, but on the day she is to enter the jungle and the locate the temple, Diana comes to her. She brings a GPS beacon so that if Barbara Ann runs into any trouble, she can activate the signal and Diana will come to her rescue. But unbeknownst to either Diana or Barbara Ann, the woman funding the expedition, Dr. Veronica Cale, is being tasked by the sons of Ares, Phobos and Deimos, to ensure that Diana never receives Barbara Ann's distress call.
Days later when Diana becomes concerned and goes looking for Barbara Ann, what she finds is Cheetah. Just as she was warned, when Barbara Ann went seeking Urzkartaga and his temple she got more than she bargained for. Promised the incredible power of the Cheetah, Barbara Ann agreed to become the plant god's bride, but Urzkartaga was angry she was not a virgin and cursed her with an unquenchable hunger that can only be sated by consuming human flesh. When she needed her friend most, Diana was not there, and so Barbara Ann blames Diana for her curse.
Cheetah's Role In Wonder Woman 2
This new origin for Cheetah, that she isn't simply a villain but instead a friend of Diana's who fell prey to her own hubris, was then grievously misused, and now feels as if she can't trust anyone is incredibly compelling. And where Ares fell more into a generic "big bad" category of film villain, having a Wonder Woman sequel feature Diana fighting a former friend makes her connection with the villain all the more emotional.
For this relationship to have that emotional payoff, however, a Wonder Woman sequel would need to first establish the friendship between Diana and Barbara Ann. Again, the exact setting for this sequel is unknown, and with Diana being effectively immortal, the possibilities are almost endless. But whether or not a Wonder Woman sequel chooses to jump far ahead in time or not, the first meeting between Diana and Barbara Ann should occur over a shared interest or knowledge of something ancient. This could be either an instance of Diana hearing Barbara Ann speak Ancient Greek -- a language Diana clearly understands but most others do not -- or Barbara Ann displaying a unique understanding of Amazonian culture, becoming a point of familiarity for Diana in a still unfamiliar world.
As to what would bring them first together, that seems obvious -- archeology. With the study of ancient history being Barbara Ann's profession and Diana being particularly suited for dealing with mythical monsters, then a crisis involving some long buried evil seems the perfect situation. Just how Diana is called upon to assist in this especially dangerous expedition also depends on her circumstances in a Wonder Woman sequel, but perhaps she stays on with Etta Candy and whatever branch of the U.S. government Steve was reporting to?
Once Diana and Barbara Ann embark on their mission it will inevitably go off the rails. This is the situation which could lead to Barbara Ann becoming cursed, offering herself to Urzkartaga or whatever deity they encounter, only to be double-crossed. The reasoning for her decision can even be introduced as a lingering jealously she has for Diana, wishing she too could be gifted great power by the gods, further complicating their friendship. Diana then needs to be in some way incapacitated, either through imprisonment, attack, or manipulation, and therefor be unable to save Barbara Ann from becoming Cheetah.
Barbara Ann's moment of transformation could happen near the end of the film, adding an element of failure to the film's resolution and setting Cheetah up as the next film's villain, or it could happen earlier on, turning her into an unknown quantity, neither explicitly aligned with the main villain or Wonder Woman. Either way, Cheetah will symbolize a friend whom Diana failed, someone she could no protect from themselves or others, a monstrous inversion of Diana herself -- a woman not blessed but rather cursed by the gods.