Up until the most recent trailer for Wonder Woman, we only had brief glimpses of the movie's villain, Doctor Poison. Now, details are slowly beginning to emerge about who she is and what she wants. In the final trailer before the movie is released next month her name was finally uttered on the screen and now director Patty Jenkins has explained a little bit moe about who the character is. According to Jenkins...
[Dr. Maru is] an interesting character because, you know, we don't get super into her backstory, but we know her backstory, which is that she's a woman who has had all kinds of damage in her life, and now she delights in bringing -- and I've known people like this -- delights in bringing that to other people's lives... There is that way of being a damaged and dark person where you're waiting for other people to face that wrath too.
Doctor Poison is hardly one of Wonder Woman's most well-known villains, which may make her perfect for an origin story movie. The character, as her name implies, is an expert with poisons and since the film will take place during World War I, where the use of poison gas was first used on a large scale, it fits perfectly to have the character appear here. Based on Patty Jenkins' comments to Screen Rant, it would seem that we won't necessarily get a lot of history about who Doctor Poison is as a person, but that's ok because it's really not that important to understanding the character.
We're assuming that the "damage" that Doctor Poison has received, whatever its source, is where the mask that she wears came from. Our images of the character show a prosthesis on the lower part of her face which we're guessing hides significant physical damage which has been done to her. Whatever backstory we do get on the character will likely include the reason for that, as it is probably the cause of whatever grudge she's holding against the rest of the world.
In the comics, Doctor Poison is actually Princess Maru but in the film, she's being changed into Doctor Maru, a title which likely makes a lot more sense under the circumstances.
Of course, we have every indication that Doctor Poison will not by the only villain that Wonder Woman faces in the film. Associated merchandise, as well as rumors, have indicated that another classic Wonder Woman villain will also be appearing. We'll leave the spoiler out of this if you don't know the situation, but it's possible that Doctor Poison isn't working alone, although it could also be the case that the film will be running two entirely separate storylines. We'll know for sure on June 2 when Wonder Woman arrives in theaters. Be sure to check out everything we know about the upcoming film.
