Diana fights the power of greed in Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman 1984 is definitely one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year. Gal Gadot impressed everyone with her take on the iconic hero in 2017’s Wonder Woman, set during World War I. Now, we’re jumping forward to the ’80s, introducing new villains, bringing back director Patty Jenkins, and pitting Diana against a force even someone as pure-hearted as her may find it difficult to stop: greed.

And also that trailer is great. Love that trailer.

A lot of movies and shows are set during the ’80s right now — Stranger Things, the IT movies, POSE, Glow, etc. At first glance, it kind of looks like Wonder Woman 1984 is bandwagoning, but according to associate producer Anna Obropta, there’s a specific reason the team chose this era. “In 1984, America was at the peak of its power and its pride,” Obropta told Entertainment Weekly. “Apple computers and parachute pants, wealth, commercialism, glamour, even violence — everything was larger than life. It was a decade of greed and desire, a time of ‘Me, me, more more more.’”

Jenkins continued that thought: “It was a time where no cost had shown up yet. There was the fear of the Cold War. But it really was like, ‘This is gonna go on forever!’ The feeling that the world was this cornucopia that would never stop giving was so enormous.”

And Wonder Woman will face off against a villain who embodies this gobble-up-everything-in-sight ethos: Gordon Gecko-alike businessman Maxwell Lord, played by Game of Thrones veteran Pedro Pascal, who’s just coming off playing the lead role on Disney’s The Mandalorian. “Max is a dream-seller,” Pascal said. “It’s this character who encompasses a component of the era which is, you know, ‘Get whatever want, however you can. You’re entitled to it!’ And at any cost, ultimately, which represents a huge part of our culture and this kind of unabashed — it’s greed. It’s f—ing greed, of course. But it’s also about ‘How do you be your best self? How do you win?’ So he’s definitely the face of that version of success.”

And who better to face down the embodiment of greed than Wonder Woman, a character driven by love and compassion? “I think that when I just started, I didn’t understand the magnitude and how much this character means to people,” Gadot said. “I was feeling like the little girl who’s supposed to climb the Kilimanjaro mountain, scratching my head and thinking, ‘How the hell am I going to do this?’ But now I feel like I know where I’m going and I know what we’re doing. If in the first movie Diana didn’t understand the complexities of mankind, now she completely understands it…. She loves people, and I think that’s the key to this character, you know? She has the powers of a goddess, but she has the heart of a human.”

She’s also going to take place in some absolutely killer-looking scenes. An early one has her busting up a fracas at a mall, a symbol of ’80s-era consumerism if there ever was one…

…and later in the White House, another iconic American location:

Lots of great iconography in here already, although none of it holds a candle to what looks like it may run away with the show: Wonder Woman’s new golden armor…

…complete with wings:

According to Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming, it was important that, in the light, the armor look “liquid, moving.”

"There’s a feeling of non-flatness…. Because in the comics, she does fight her mightiest battles in the golden suit."

The cosplay possibilities are staggering.

Anyway, back to the plot, Max Lord isn’t the only villain Wonder Woman will be facing. There’s also Cheetah, who starts off as Diana’s shy and socially awkward friend Barbara Minerva before joining up with Lord and going through a major change. “I did not really know so much about Cheetah,” said Saturday Night Live alum Kristin Wiig, who plays her. “Before I even talked to Patty [Jenkins], there was an idea that maybe it might be about being a villain for the movie, so I went online and looked at all the villains of Wonder Woman to try to figure out which one, because I was so excited. And I was really, really happy to find out it was her.”

"I’ve never really played someone who walks into the room and owns it — especially when she starts out so insecure and self-deprecating. We didn’t want to see Barbara in Cheetah, and I didn’t want to see Kristen in Cheetah, either."

I’ll admit that it’s hard to picture Wiig playing a supervillain; I loved her on SNL — like, I consider her one of the funniest people to come out of the show in a long time — but as a serious threat to a superhero? As a part of major action scenes? (“I was sore for about eight months,” Wiig said of the stunt work. “A lot of ice baths.”) I’m having trouble getting there.

Jenkins, however, is certain of her choice. “In the lore, Cheetah is often someone who’s friends with Diana but jealous of her,” she said. “And I feel like Kristen’s playing a character who’s both ends of the spectrum — she’s your warm, funny friend who’s kind and interesting and then can transform into something completely different. Yes, she happens to be a woman, but she’s straight out of the Gene Hackman Superman school of great, funny, tremendous actors. I don’t think of her being a female villain, although she is. I feel that way about Wonder Woman, too. The female component of it is huge, but she’s also just a hero, a universal hero.”

As for Wonder Woman herself, she’s living a quiet, somewhat lonely existence decades after venturing into the human world with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) in the first movie, working at the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. “She has not only had the loss of Steve Trevor,” said producer Charles Roven. “She’s lost nearly all the people that are important to her because they’re not immortal, and her life is actually quite lonely and spartan. In fact, the only joy that she gets out of it is when she’s actually doing something for people, if she can help those in need.”

And yet, as you can see in the show above, Steve Trevor is back…although no one on the movie will say how that happens. “In the first movie, I played the world-weary soldier who has seen all the depravity that humankind is capable of displaying,” said Pine. “And in this one I get to be much more wide-eyed and joyful. My role is really just as a friend, lover, boyfriend-cum-bodyguard who’s trying his best to help Diana on her mission. I’m like the Watson to her Holmes.”

So there are still some mysteries to be solved before Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters on June 5, but what I’ve seen definitely has me intrigued. What about you?

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