Live Action Casting: Wonder Woman

 We begin the series of DC Comics run-up to Justice League films with the Amazon Princess herself... Wonder Woman!

For the starring role of Wonder Woman, we go with Gina Carano. This isn’t really that shocking, especially given the rumors that she is going to play Diana Prince. Honestly, Carano brings something to the table that casting your average pretty brunette actress can never hope to… and that is legitimacy. What I mean by that is Carano moves like an actual fighter because (newsflash) she was one! Her moves are fluid, not the staged awkwardness that we usually get from actresses pretending to be bad-asses. Gina Carano looks the part too. After seeing her in last year’s Haywire, I have no doubt she could pull off Wonder Woman. Casting anyone else, in my opinion, would be a step down.

  Next we have Diana’s love interest and first glimpse of “Man’s World”… Steve Trevor. To be fair, this is not a part that requires anyone too specific. You need a handsome tough guy that can play off Wonder Woman. But Jonny and I both agree that what we need is a proven performer who can make up for Gina Carano’s acting inexperience and possibly give her some guidance.

 So we have chosen Matt Damon as our top choice. He is attractive, a big name and a great actor. Plus, Damon has played a convincing action movie bad-ass in those Bourne movies. Like I said, Trevor could be replaced if Mr. Damon were busy with one of the thousands of movies he appears in every year, but he is our first choice for all the reasons given. 

 As a special shout out to the fan-boys and in recognition of her legacy, we have to have Lynda Carter play Queen Hippolyta, the mother of Wonder Woman. 

 For those unfamiliar, Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in a live action television show in the 70’s. This is especially funny when it was said that the “golden age” Wonder Woman was actually Hippolyta!

Moving on, we decided to cast the role of Artemis, the battle-ready Amazon and rival of Diana. 

 For her, I am going with Deborah Ann Woll. You might know her as Jessica Hamby on True Blood. She is a definite stand-out actress on that show and her performance as a vampire makes me believe she could easily play a tough as nails, chip on her shoulder Amazon warrior.

Now I’m not sure where she would appear in the film, but we wanted to have Donna Troy there somewhere, probably on the island home of the Amazons, Themyscira. Given the amount of material to cover, I am figuring that Donna Troy’s involvement would be little more than a cameo, but it would set the stage for her to become Wonder Girl (in a sequel?) and for a possible Teen Titans movie!

 So for Donna Troy, we decided to go with Victoria Justice. She’s a pretty talented actress and really fits the part in the looks department. I have a feeling that she could pull it off.  

 Moving on the villain of this movie, I am going to go with goddess of witchcraft… Circe. I think the idea of Diana venturing into the “world of man” on a mission of goodwill would contrast nicely with this sorceress’ eternal hatred of men. Essentially, Circe would seek to rein some destruction onto “man’s world” in a quest to free women of their bonds to them… and to serve her will instead.

 For the role of Circe we are going with Kate Beckinsale. She has star power and can definitely play a bad-ass as we have seen from the Underworld movies. I think she could easily carry the film as the villainous sorceress.

Which leads me to the big reveal… once Circe is defeated she finds herself banished (as she is immortal, she couldn’t be killed). She is visited by a deity who manipulated her from the start… Ares, the god of war. 

 He had enamored Circe with ideas of conquest and glory, perhaps with the promise of support, to attain more power to break free of his banishment. Ares reveals that he gains strength and power from war, but discovered that battles fought between beings beyond the level of ordinary humans (superheroes?) provide him with a greater lever of power than the paltry squabbling of mere mortals. To that effect, his plans are coming to fruition.

 For the part of Ares, we want Javier Bardem. Jonny came up with this one and at first I was skeptical; but the longer I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. Bardem has shown that he makes for one hell of bad guy. Remember him as creepy Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men? Or how about the awesomely charismatic and twisted Silva from Skyfall? He will be an amazing god of war. I figure he would be introduced looking human, then form his magic trademark armor to reveal who he really is. Jonny and I would have big plans for Ares… but that is yet to come.

Stay tuned for the next installment for Live Action Casting: Justice League!