Lynda Carter, Gal Gadot reflect on 75 years of Wonder Woman at the U.N.
Not one but two Wonder Women assembled at the United Nations on Friday, as the iconic superhero was named an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls.
Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter joined Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson at the U.N. for a special ceremony recognizing the 75-year-old superhero. As part of the U.N.’s sustainable development goal number five, which focuses on promoting gender equality, the U.N., DC, and Warner Bros. plan to use Wonder Woman’s image to raise awareness for gender-based issues around the world.
The U.N. ceremony marked the first joint public appearance of Gadot, who appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and will star in next year’s Wonder Woman, and Carter, who starred in the long-running ‘70s TV show. Both women spoke at the ceremony about the longevity and cultural impact of Wonder Woman, who celebrates her 75th anniversary this year.
“In some magical and mystical way, there lies within each of us Wonder Woman,” Carter told the audience. “She is real. She lives and she breathes. I know this because she lives in me, and she lives in the stories that these women tell me, day in and day out. I see it in the letters and in the stories. I read it on social media. I see it in the tears that fall from the eyes of the women who say it saved them from some awful thing that they endured — because they saw that they could do something great.”
The appointment of Wonder Woman comes as the U.N. is under increased scrutiny for its lack of female leadership. Earlier this year, current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would like to see a woman named as his successor, but former Portugal prime minister Antonio Guterres is set to succeed him instead.
In her speech, Carter reflected on what it was like to be cast as Wonder Woman more than 40 years ago and how the character has endured since Elizabeth Holloway Marston and her husband, William Moulton Marston, co-created her.
“This was a monumental thing, for at the time, there were very few women holding their own shows in television,” Carter recalled. “They didn’t think a woman could hold a television show. We started getting letters and phone calls, and I started hearing stories. This miracle of an idea that came from a 48-year-old woman named Elizabeth started to have an influence in some girls’ and women’s lives. That was when Wonder Woman became flesh. This idea became a reality, and the ‘she’ became ‘we.’”
After the ceremony, both Gadot and Carter told EW about how much respect they have for each other and how proud they are to both represent the iconic character. Gadot added that she’d love to see Carter actually take on the real-life role she plays on Supergirl, as president of the United States.
“How awesome is she?” Gadot told EW. “And I do think she should be the president of the United States. She is fantastic, and after knowing her even for a little bit from this morning, it makes so much sense that she was the first one to embody this iconic character because she is the character in flesh. She is strong and inspiring and loving and good and smart and confident, and the list goes on and on.”
As for whether we’ll ever see the two Wonder Women team up on screen?
“One day!” Jenkins told EW. “We tried to make it work in this movie, but we couldn’t. But it would be my greatest dream to get [Carter] in something upcoming.”
