CW Developing Wonder Girl Show With Latina Lead

Most of our favorite comic book heroes go back decades. Batman, The Flash, and Superman are old enough to have great grandkids. It's tough to get new heroes to take root, though a publisher occasionally strikes gold with someone like young Spider-Man Miles Morales. DC and the CW are hoping the same will be true of their next hero, Yara Flor, the latest character to take on the Wonder Girl legacy. After being introduced in the comics, she'll appear on the CW with a show is in development by Arrowerse mastermind Greg Berlanti, Deadline reports.

Wonder Girl will tell the story of Yara Flor. Flor is a Latina woman born from an Amazonian warrior and a Brazilian god who, like her predecessor, finds herself fighting evil forces with her new abilities. DC and the CW have made this a little confusing, so bear with me. Yara Flor will debut in the comics as the new Wonder Woman in DC's upcoming Future State event. The event, set to hit shelves in the first two months of 2021, imagines a DC universe in the future where new people have taken up the mantles of legendary heroes. The event has someone new donning Batman's cowl in The Next Batman, while Clark Kent's son Jonathan will be wearing the big red "S" for Superman of Metropolis and Superman: Worlds of War. The event isn't meant to replace DC continuity, but rather to take a break from it and explore some new characters.

On the CW show, Yara Flor will take on the mantle of Wonder Girl. In the comics, Wonder Girl began as a young Wonder Woman. Like Superboy, though, she eventually took on her own identity; since the late 1960s, Wonder Girl has been a sidekick to Wonder Woman not unlike Robin is to Batman. Wonder Girl's alternate identity has typically been that of Donna Troy, a fellow Themyscira native. We're betting the identity shift comes from the fact that they have Gal Gadot active as Wonder Woman in theaters.

As with DC and Future State, the CW is focusing on diversity with Wonder Girl. Dailyn Rodriguez, who previously wrote Ugly Betty and wrote and produced the on-going Queen of the South, will act as producer, showrunner, and writer on the show. Rodriguez, whose parents are Cuban immigrants, will cast a Latina actress in the role of Flor. Deadline's sources say that the production will join the existing universe of CW superheroes.

This is an opportune time for Wonder Girl to hit the scene. DC will have introduced her in the comic-book pages to get audiences familiar. The CW's Supergirl is ending with a sixth season in 2021, which will leave a superhero-sized gap in the CW's schedule, giving Wonder Girl a spot to slot into. Wonder Girl would be the first Latina superhero protagonist for a DC TV series, and would join Black Lightning and Batwoman in the CW's increasingly diverse CW Justice League. Black Lightning is the DC TV universe's first black live-action hero, while Batwoman is DC's first gay lead. As that show transitions in the wake of Ruby Rose's departure with new lead Javicia Leslie, it will also become the first to feature a superhero show led by a black woman. Donna Troy, DC's classic depiction of Wonder Girl, also appeared as a significant character in the first two seasons of HBO Max's Titans show.