“Wonder Woman” hits movie theaters around the world next summer when Gal Gadot returns as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

We don’t know who the villain in Wonder Woman is, but judging by her creepy mask and look in the first trailer, Elena Anaya’s character was a good guess! It turns out… we were right! The actress confirmed that she’s playing a villain in a new interview with Spanish website SensaCine.

“Well, it was a small role in this big ensemble, but it is an important character in the story. It’s directed by Patty Jenkins, then there’s Gal Gadot as our main lead, Chris Pine as her co-lead and I’m going to be… a big nightmare for the two of them”.

Doctor Poison is the name of two fictional villains who have battled Wonder Woman. Both villains were members of the super-villain team Villainy Inc.

Princess Maru

In 1942 Princess Maru became Doctor Poison, who disguising her gender via a bulky hooded costume and mask, was the leader of a Nazi spy ring whose ultimate goal was to wreak havoc in the US Army by contaminating the army's water with "reverso", a drug that "confuses the brain centers… [making] soldiers do the exact opposite of what they are told". This effects tens of thousands of soldiers. She kidnapped Steve Trevor and Diana Prince in an attempt to learn spy secrets. Wonder Woman escapes, but does not alert the army as Steve is still held in the fortress.

This plan is foiled by the Amazon heroine Wonder Woman in the first appearance of the Holiday Girls, who pretend to just be a parade and gets the guards to dance for them before hancuffing them and Doctor Poison is imprisoned after her identity is revealed, but she later escapes and, in 1943, now working for Japan, grounds all US planes along the front of China via a "green gas" which "enters the carburetor and stops the engine." Wonder Woman halts this scheme as well, and Doctor Poison is imprisoned on Transformation Island, the Amazon penal colony where she pretends to be reformed. She is not seen again until 1948, when she and seven other female super-villains escape and pool their talents as Villainy Inc.; led by the Saturnian slaver Eviless, the evil eight are again defeated by Wonder Woman. Throughout most of her first appearance Doctor Poison was believed to be a male due to her disguise, and she retained this "drag king" garb in her later appearances; whether this guise was simply a necessity of assuming power within the male-dominated Axis governments or indicative of something else is difficult to say at this late date.

Powers and abilities
Doctor Poison is an expert in the use of poisons, toxins and plagues.

“Wonder Woman’s not a dark character,” says Jenkins. “I want to tell a very positive story. I feel like for years everything was leaning harder and darker. There was an expectation that Wonder Woman needed to be tougher or harder, too. But for me, the final victory is if she remains warm and loving.”

What was Jenkins’ vision for telling Wonder Woman’s story?

For her it was very important to not just portray her as a goddess, but to tell a very simple story of someone who believes in good and believes that people should be happy and lead safe, happy lives. We cared a lot about simplifying Wonder Woman’s agenda, because it is simple. It was her heart that we cared about, not her being this warrior. When you tell a story from the heart, all of us can relate, because all of us want to live in a safe, quiet, and peaceful world.