Following the conclusion of Wonder Woman 1984’s main story, viewers were treated to an appearance from another Wonder Woman. No, there wasn’t a clone of Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince running around in the DC Extended Universe at that point in time. Instead, Lynda Carter, who brought Wonder Woman to life on TV in the 1970s, cameoed as Asteria, the Amazon who originally wore the golden armor that Gadot’s Diana donned in the final act. Though there had been talk about including Carter in the first Wonder Woman movie, there was an important reason why her appearance was saved for the sequel.
Wonder Woman 1984 is now out on home media, and among the bonus features that accompany the movie is a featurette called The Making of Wonder Woman 1984: Expanding The Wonder. During the section chronicling Lynda Carter’s cameo, co-writer Geoff Johns said the following about the actress:
We originally talked in the first film, ‘She’ll pass her in Selfridges.’ And it didn’t feel special enough. It needed to feel like if she’s gonna play somebody, she’s gotta play somebody special. And so she became this mythic Golden Warrior. The first Amazon.
So there’s a version of the Wonder Woman story where Diana of Themyscira would have crossed paths with a cameoing Lynda Carter at Selfridges, the department store where Etta Candy helped Diana find some clothes to help her better blend in with man’s world during World War I. There’s no question that many moviegoers would have easily spotted Carter, but ultimately Geoff Johns, director Patty Jenkins and the rest of the creative minds behind the 2017 movie decided that she deserved a more important role. It worked out for the best anyway, as Carter said back in late 2016 that her schedule conflicted with when Wonder Woman was shooting.
Casting Lynda Carter as Asteria for Wonder Woman 1984 certainly checked the ‘special’ box, as Diana Prince told Steve Trevor about how Asteria donned the golden armor to hold back the tides of man as the Amazons could safely flee to Themyscira. As such, her sisters held the Amazon Games to honor her memory, as well as built a statue of her in the Amazonian coliseum. Here’s what Patty Jenkins had to say about Asteria’s importance in the Expanding The Wonder featurette:
The Golden Warrior really symbolizes what Lynda symbolizes to us. She is the great hero that came before us, that has inspired us to be the people we are today. And so I loved it for both of those reasons, that we could tease it throughout the film, and then reveal that that’s who we’re talking about. I remember trying and trying to figure it out, and then just getting chills when we figured it out. I was like, ‘That’s so right.’
While Diana and the rest of the Amazons believe that Asteria died millennia ago, it turns out that like Wonder Woman, she’s been living in man’s world and using her special abilities to protect people. Whether this is the last we’ve seen of Carter as Asteria or if Patty Jenkins will include her in Wonder Woman 3 remains to be seen, but considering how many people enjoy the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series and cherished Carter’s iteration of the character, it’s definitely fitting that she gets to stand out in the DCEU as a hero too.
You can purchase Wonder Woman 1984 on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD now, and don’t forget to read CinemaBlend’s review of the movie. Neither Wonder Woman 3 nor the Amazons spinoff have release dates yet, but you can learn more about those projects, and many more on the DC front, by browsing through our upcoming DC movies guide.
