Keep watching when the credits roll on Wonder Woman 1984 for a fun post-credits scene. We break down what happens and what it means for the future.
Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Wonder Woman 1984.
Wonder Woman 1984 sees Diana Prince don the armor of an ancient Amazonian warrior called Asteria, who held off the hordes of men while her sisters escaped to Themyscira - and the movie's post-credits scene reveals Lynda Carter in the role of Asteria. Carter, of course, played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV show, and for decades her face was the first that came to mind for most people when picturing Wonder Woman.
After first being cast for a smaller appearance in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gal Gadot returned to the role of the DC Extended Universe's Diana Prince in the 2017 solo movie Wonder Woman, which was set during World War I. After that film became a smash hit at the box office, director Patty Jenkins was quickly called upon to direct the sequel. Wonder Woman 1984 takes the action forward almost 70 years and features the miraculous return of Chris Pine as Diana's first great love, the pilot Steve Trevor, who sacrificed his life at the end of the first movie. After the initial joy of having Steve back, however, Wonder Woman learns that every wish comes at a price.
Following a climactic final confrontation with ambitious businessman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and friend-turned-enemy Barbara Minerva a.k.a. Cheetah (Kristen Wiig), Wonder Woman manages to stop the world from tearing itself apart - but the movie's not quite over yet. Here's our breakdown of Wonder Woman 1984's post-credits scene with Lynda Carter, and what it means for the future of the franchise.
Wonder Woman 1984's post-credits scene follows a mysterious woman through a market (it's unclear whether this is still set in the 1980s, or in the present day). Disaster strikes when a heavy wooden pole is knocked down, but the woman easily catches it before it hits anyone. A stunned mother whose child was saved from being crushed by the pole runs after the mysterious stranger and begs for a chance to thank her, and the savior turns around to reveal that she's actually played by Lynda Carter. When asked her name, she tells the mother that it is Asteria - identifying her as the original owner of Wonder Woman's golden armor, who stayed behind to hold off the armies of men while the other Amazons escaped to Themyscira. To explain away her seemingly miraculous act of strength, Asteria says (in a callback to Diana's explanation for her superhuman strength earlier in the movie) that it was no big deal, and simply a matter of shifting weight - adding, "I've been doing this for a long time." The scene ends with Carter throwing a knowing wink to the audience.
The version of Asteria seen in Wonder Woman 1984's post-credits scene doesn't appear in DC Comics. There is a character called Asteria who was seen briefly in the Elseworld's Finest limited series, who is a member of the Justice Society in a parallel universe, but the name is probably just a coincidence. More recently, the 2018 comic issue Justice League #11 saw Diana accompanied by a metallic two-headed bird which she had found on a reef and named Asteria, after an "ancient sister who fought against the gods." That differs slightly from Asteria's story in the movie, but as Bleeding Cool notes, the Justice League comic writers James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder were likely made aware of her upcoming appearance by Wonder Woman 1984 co-writer Geoff Johns, who was the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment from 2010 to 2018.
In Greek mythology (from which the Wonder Woman comics and movies draw a great deal of inspiration) Asteria was a Titan goddess whose name approximately translates to "of the stars". Though she isn't typically depicted wearing golden winged armor, the wings do connect to another story about Asteria: that while trying to evade Zeus's lusty pursuit (an unfortunately common hazard on Mount Olympus) she transformed herself into a quail and dived into the ocean, where she transformed into the Greek island of Delos. Asteria's eagle-esque armor in Wonder Woman 1984 echoes a detail from the Roman poet Ovid's account of her escape from Zeus in Metamorphoses, which states that Zeus himself "assum'd a soaring eagle's shape" while trying to catch Asteria. However, it's actually based on the Gold Armor from the comics, which was specially made for Wonder Woman rather than being inherited from another Amazon.
Carter's brief appearance as Asteria in Wonder Woman 1984's post-credits scene was most likely intended as a simple, fun cameo, as well as a symbolic passing of the torch from Carter to Gadot. Asteria's story of a woman battling her way through a man's world in order to create an opportunity for the other Amazons does somewhat parallel Carter's own story. The 1970s Wonder Woman series was not only the first ever female-led superhero show, but also marked the first time that a female superhero had been depicted in live-action. Carter herself came up with the now-iconic transformation sequence in which Diana Prince would spin on the spot in order to change into her Wonder Woman costume, which later ended up being used in some of the comics and DC's animated properties.
Wonder Woman 3 hasn't yet been officially green lit by Warner Bros., and it will be particularly hard to gauge Wonder Woman 1984's success given the circumstances under which it's being released. The movie is arriving simultaneously in theaters and on AT&T's streaming service HBO Max, which has struggled to build a subscriber base since its launch earlier this year. Therefore, while Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to perform poorly at the box office due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and related theater shutdowns, the future of the franchise is likely to depend more on how effective the film is at securing new HBO Max subscriptions.
Assuming that Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman does return for another solo movie, however, there's a possibility that Asteria could join her. Carter remains active as an actress, with her recent roles including President Olivia Marsdin in Supergirl and the voice of Azura in the Elder Scrolls games. While the cameo was fun, it would be even more exciting to see both versions of Wonder Woman united onscreen.
