This 'Wonder Woman' Villain Could Be A Big Threat

As Wonder Woman's June release date approaches, fans have been slowly peeling back the layers of the movie's secretive plotline. Among the collection of meager details we can gather is one about a villain that you can be sure Wonder Woman will encounter during the movie. But just who is Doctor Poison? The Wonder Woman villain has a big role in the upcoming film, and it might involve him working for an actual god — Ares.

William Moulton Marston, the maker of Doctor Poison, designed the character in the original 1940s comics to be Wonder Woman's complete and total opposite in many ways, but also her mirror image in others. Doctor Poison, also known as Princess Maru, grew up within the bounds of royalty and explored her strengths within a male-dominated society. In a Screen Rant interview with Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, she explained the character of Doctor Poison in detail, and discussed how she'll factor into the highly-anticipated movie. Said Jenkins,

“[Dr. Maru is] an interesting character because, you know, we don’t get super into her backstory, but we know her backstory, which is that she’s a woman who has had all kinds of damage in her life, and now she delights in bringing – and I’ve known people like this – delights in bringing that to other people’s lives… There is that way of being a damaged and dark person where you’re waiting for other people to face that wrath too.”

As the film shows, Doctor Poison is a Nazi spy who poisons her victims, and (spoiler alert) Ares is after the scientific formula for a deadly gas she concocts that could destroy humanity, according to Movie Pilot. As Cinema Blend guesses, this could be why Poision wears a mask to cover physical damage she's sustained to her face.

But will Doctor Poison's chemical warfare prevail against our heroine? In the movie's trailer, Wonder Woman gets a warning about how dangerous Doctor Poison can actually be, and she's told that her enemy could kill millions with her concoctions. The villain is clearly a big threat to Wonder Woman and her allies, but we'll have to wait and see if Doctor Poison has the power to actually stop Diana in her tracks.