It’s hard to imagine Wonder Woman without Gal Gadot, but the role could have gone to another talented actress if not for a poor showing.
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Actress Kate Beckinsale is more known for the Underworld franchise, but at one point she was in talks to take on the iconic DC role. This was back in the mid-2000s though, which had something to do with why she passed.
When asked by Yahoo why she opted not to stay involved, Beckinsale said, “But the incarnations that I was seeing were…, they weren’t this one [the 2017 film].” As the interviewer Kevin Polowy notes, that pause seemed to indicate a not so pleasant word for what she was seeing at the time.
Superhero films were much different back then than the ones fans are used to now, including the way they are built. It seems their approach at the time was nowhere near Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s version.
Beckinsale also admitted to not being crazy about more spandex.
“I don’t know if I was desperate to be in a leotard. I’d already done the rubber trousers,” she said. “You have to take in that you have a child at some point and how much could you possibly embarrass them.”
As for the cool factor of a child saying their mom is Wonder Woman, Beckinsale doesn’t look at it that way. “That’s such an oppressive thing,” Beckinsale said with a laugh. “If your mother is Wonder Woman, you’re gonna have issues.”
Beckinsale is excited for the doors that a film like Wonder Woman opens though.
“And now, for my daughter’s generation, they’re not questioning that at all,” said Beckinsale. “You know, Wonder Woman smacked everybody at the box office…. That’s normal to them and that feels like a short period of time for quite a big change. It’s nice to have been part of moving that needle. It’s nice to have that.”
At the time of the rumors, plenty of fan art made the rounds online, but not just for Wonder Woman. Beckinsale reveals there’s also plenty of art devoted to her take on one of Gotham’s favorite characters.
“There’s also a very big alternate universe where I’m Catwoman. There’s a lot of that,” she said.
Wonder Woman currently enjoys an 84.65 on ComicBook.com’s composite ranking. Wonder Woman hits digital on August 29th, with a DVD/Blu-ray release likely coming in September.
