The announcement that Kristen Wiig, longtime Saturday Night Live star and veteran comedic actress (star of such hilarious films as Bridsemaids and Ghostbusters) has been cast as Cheetah, the major villain of the upcoming Wonder Woman sequel, has been met with some shock and surprise around the Internet. However, despite what your initial reaction may have been, Wiig's career has set her up perfectly to play a role like the Cheetah, making the casting an impressive decision.

First off, before we know anything else about the role, it is important to note that there is a long history of comedic actors not being taken seriously when they take over superhero roles and that has generally proven to be a fault premise, because quite often, the very success of a comedic actor derives from one's ability to connect with the audience and have them relate to, all qualities that work well with a superhero character.

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The most famous example of this would be Michael Keaton, who had mostly played comedic roles before taking on the role of Batman in Tim Burton's Batman. A letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times from Allan B. Rothstein in 1988 echoed many people's views on the subject back in the day.

"He might have made a good Joker, but his comic style, which he seems unable to shake (but can amplify), has doomed this promised 'serious' treatment of Bob Kane's character to the same tired, boring level of artificial 'camp' that made the TV series a hit yet simultaneously doomed it to an early cancellation," Rothstein said at the time. However, as it soon became evident, the very qualities that made Keaton such a lovable comedic character were also the same ones that made people connect to him as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Wiig has the same qualities that Keaton had back in the 1980s. Her work in Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters relied on her relatability to work and thus, she should have the same ability to connect to audiences that Keaton had.

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One of the problems, though, with looking at Wiig's ability to fit into the role of the Cheetah is that there have been a number of different versions of the Cheetah over the years.

The original Cheetah, Priscilla Rich, was a debutante with a split personality...

As you can see, she was a rather broad character. She's the type of character that Wiig played a lot on Saturday Night Live, like her over-the-top actress competing on the game show, Secret Word...

However, it is highly unlikely that the Priscilla Rich version of the character is going to be used in the film.

It is much more likely that the Barbara Ann Minerva version of the character will be used (well, at least one specific version of the Minerva take on the character, at least). Minerva was introduced in the George Perez Post-Crisis reboot of Wonder Woman.

Minerva was an archaeologist who was transformed into the bestial Cheetah while on an expedition to the remotest regions of Africa. She first encountered Wonder Woman because she wanted Wonder Woman's lasso of truth to add to her collection of historical items but once she was defeated, she kept coming back mostly out of her bruised ego. Over the years, she essentially just became a generic villain that would show up whenever a super-villain team needed a female member.

Wiig probably could play her, but this version of the Cheetah would essentially just be a CGI-fueled generic villain, so a role like that would be a waste for Wiig. No, the version of the Cheetah that we think is most likely to be used in the upcoming film is also the one that Wiig's current strengths as an actress would play to the best, which is the Rebirth version of the Cheetah.

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When Greg Rucka took over writing Wonder Woman for an epic 25-issue run in DC's Rebirth, one of the major changes he made to the Wonder Woman mythos was by dramatically reshaping the past of Barbara Ann Minerva.

Now, she is a child born into a wealthy family whose mother dies when she is young. She is obsessed with books and myths and languages and does not fit into her father's idea of what a proper lady should look like, so she breaks from her family and takes on her mother's maiden name, Minerva, and becomes one of the most respected archaeologists in the field. She is obsessed with one particular goal, which is discovering the Amazons.

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However, while she discovers some artifacts and even develops the ability to speak the Amazon's language, she is unable to track down Themyscira, the home of the Amazons.

Her life then changes dramatically when Wonder Woman arrives in "Man's World" and Minerva is brought in to translate for her...

They become fast friends and constant companions (while Minerva also develops romantic feelings for Etta Candy, the military supervisor for Wonder Woman). Wonder Woman gives Barbara Ann a special communicator that she can use whenever she is in trouble, much like Jimmy Olsen's signal watch. However, Barbara Ann falls victim to a plot by the villainous Veronica Cale and part of the plan is to wed Minerva to the god Urzkartaga. Cale (and the sons of Ares who she is working for) believe that if Minerva is turned into a demigod, she might be able to find Themyscira for them.

So Cale's associate, Doctor Cyber, blocks the communicator and thus Wonder Woman never receives Barbara Ann's distress signal until it is too late and she has been transformed into the Cheetah.

Now that is a role that Wiig is perfect for.

There is a specific film, 2014's Skeleton Twins, that informs how we see Wiig in this role.

In that film, Wiig plays a woman about to kill herself when she gets a phone call that her estranged twin brother (played by Wiig's former Saturday Night Live co-star, Bill Hader) has just unsuccessfully tried to kill himself. So she takes in her twin and they examine the hardships in their lives but also recapture some of the joys of their life, as well.

Wiig is powerful in the film as someone who wants something more out of life but doesn't quite know what it is and that's the same sort of vibe that is perfect for Barbara Ann Minerva, someone who constantly strove for greater things but always got dragged down into the mire. The DC Rebirth version of Minerva is a heartfelt, tragic figure that we are absolutely meant to relate to before she tragically gets transformed into Cheetah as part of a villainous plot and that's precisely the sort of character that Kristen Wiig can pull off.

She would be very believable as someone who could be a hard-nosed archaeologist and then good friend to Wonder Woman, basking in the glow of her friendship and then see that glow turn dark when she thinks her friend failed to save her from the horrors of becoming the Cheetah. The role is one filled with humanity and it is something that Wiig would be able to translate perfectly.