Adria Arjona

Andor

It is no great surprise that actress Adria Arjona, longtime friend of James Gunn and girlfriend of Lobo, Jason Momoa, ended up in the DCU eventually, but after a string of rumors about what role she would play, things are at least somewhat clearer now that it’s reported she actually landed a role.

It’s a mix, at present, without official confirmation from DC or James Gunn himself. Deadline and Variety are reporting that Arjona has landed the role of Maxima in the next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow, who is an alien warrior queen determined to mate with Superman. The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, mentions the Maxima idea but says it’s “unknown” if that panned out.

A theory here has been that Maxima has been a cover for a test for the role of Wonder Woman, a larger part in the DCU. Adria Arjona had frequently been mentioned as a frontrunner for that part, and the “Maxima” casting list included an actress like Eva De Dominici, who looks about as much like Wonder Woman as you could imagine. Another name on that list, Sydney Chandler, has reportedly been cast for a voice role in Creature Commandos. It is certainly a little odd that all of these dark-haired women look like potential Wonder Woman while Maxima has bright red hair. Not that there’s no way to change that, of course, but still.

This is all complicated by the fact that a week ago, James Gunn shot down “shoddy and incorrect” reporting from Deadline that Arjona, Marisa Abela and Ella Purnell were testing for Maxima. He did not say anything about the follow-up list, which still included Arjona, nor the idea that this was a secret test for Wonder Woman instead. If Arjona really is Maxima now, it would make that “shoddy and incorrect” reporting look a bit less shoddy and incorrect.

The DCU is…a lot right now, compounded by the fact that James Gunn is hyper-active on social media, shooting down some rumors, letting some others fly, and often these cast lists, almost always in fact, turn out to have the final pick on them, as happened with most of the Superman roles before they were officially announced.

Right now, the best guess is that Arjona has actually been cast as Maxima, and this is not a secret Wonder Woman cover-up, with that role still to be cast. None of this has been officially announced. The biggest part we have seen cast for certain in Man of Tomorrow is Lars Eidinger as the main villain, Brainiac, and inserting a second, seemingly unrelated-to-Brainiac character like Maxima would be a bit odd, but Gunn assembles pretty unexpected casts for his movies (Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific seemed like an unlikely trio when they were first announced).

If Arjona is Maxima, then speculation will once again turn to more lists of more actresses going out for Wonder Woman herself. Eva De Dominici really, really looks the part, but obviously it takes more than just that to get the role. We’ll see what other reporting leads to, as certainly not all of this is “incorrect,” as stated.

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