Gal Gadot can’t wait

A superheroine can also draw big crowds, as Gal Gadot proved three years ago with Wonder Woman. With an enormous grin, the Israeli actress is squeezing back into her tight bodysuit.

In 2017, Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman destroyed the idea that the world is not interested in blockbusters in which a superheroine is in charge. Finally, a film presented boys and girls with a female role model who could easily stand her ground beside Superman. The sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, was finished last summer, but the cinema release keeps getting postponed. It’s enough to make someone sad, but the hyper-positive actress who plays Wonder Woman will have none of that.

In March, after only eight days of self-isolation, Gal Gadot felt that she was “becoming philosophical” and tried to save the world by making a video in which she starts singing “Imagine” by John Lennon and leaving the rest of the song to other celebrities (e.g. Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, and Kristen Wiig), with limited vocal talent and far too much wealth to make “imagine no possessions” sound even remotely plausible. The cringeworthy result will soon be forgotten when Gadot dons her skin-tight red and blue Amazon outfit, cracks her whip and outsmarts and outfi ghts villains like Cheetah and media mogul Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984.

Gadot’s life story to a large extent explains her positive outlook. As a teenager, she was ‘discovered’ by a modelling scout, to her surprise she won the Miss Israel competition, and after two years of military service, she landed a role in a popular TV series. She was cast in her first film role in 2009, playing the drugs smuggler and weapons expert Gisele in the fourth instalment of the insanely popular street race franchise Fast & Furious. She did all her own stunts and was invited back for films five, six, and seven.

Her performance as Wonder Woman was one of the few highlights of the disappointing duel Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. This led to her solo in the first Wonder Woman film. Its incredible success made her an instant megastar. Imagine.

• Wonder Woman 1984. Release: 30/9