I just finished streaming Wonder Woman 1984 on HBOMax and I want to waste no time diving into it.

Now, my actual review will be up in a bit, but I wanted to first tackle one of my biggest questions going into this; what could we expect for Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah going forward?

Barbara finally made her transformation into the iconic Wonder Woman villain for the third act of the film. Personally, I feel the CGI work was a bit choppy and it relied heavily on the lighting of the scene to cover that up, but I digress.

I think Wiig did a great job with the character across the board. For what few still shots we had of her in full Cheetah I think it looked nice, badass, and worthy of the role.

As she and Diana faced off (in the dark) I wasn’t rooting for Cheetah to win, but I was PRAYING for her not to die. Cheetah is like Wonder Woman’s Joker. Aquaman’s Black Manta; Superman’s Luthor! You get my point. The thing is she is too important a villain to just use as a one-and-done. To my nerd’s heart relief we got to see her live another day as she watched the sunrise in wet dissapointment.

Now, we saw a montage of people across the planet renouncing their wishes but we never saw Barbara do the same… She said she would never renounce it and she meant it! Her shift back was obviously due to Max taking back his. This also means that the stone is not destroyed…

Max renouncing his wish had to have meant that the stone returned to its original form. After the climax, Diana certainly found it and locked it away or possibly even tried to destroy it? Regardless of the context the fact is we don’t know exactly what happened to it and that leaves the door wide open for Wiig’s Cheetah to return down the road.

Cheetah already tasted the life she wanted. She got power, attention, and, if her wish to be like Diana was truly granted, immortality! All Barbara has to do is get her hands on the stone once again and simply wish for all that she had to be returned and she’s back in business!

Or…

Maxwell renounced his wish meaning all wishes made after he became the stone were erased. Barbara made her wish before Max became the stone. She and Diana (besides coffee guy) were the only ones to do so. Diana renounced her wish (in that powerful scene) but Barbara never took back her original.

By this alone it means that Barbara Minerva still has all the powers of Diana including her immortality.

I prefer the latter to be the possibility simply because it gives Wiig, and future director’s should Patty Jenkins not be involved, creative space to bring Cheetah to life in new ways. For all we know since 1984 Minerva has been searching far and wide on how to get herself back to that apex predator status!

I have no doub that WW84 is going to be a success and that a third installmente will eventually be announced. With Snyder pushing for the original DCEU to move forward I believe that Cheetah, a prominant member of the Legion of Doom, will one day make her return.