Despite her membership in the Justice League of America, color palette and frequent use in American wartime propaganda, Wonder Woman is not an American, but Princess Diana of Themyscira, a magical island of women. It’s hard to find a better reminder of this than a new Wonder Woman international trailer featuring a Russian-speaking heroine.
Relations between the United States and Russia have certainly been worse, but after the 2016 election season — dogged by accusations of Russian interference — the friendship between the two power, nuclear-girded nation is strained.
Since movies (and superhero movies in particular) are now an international product, a great deal is invested in giving them an international flavor, even massaging downright nationalist characters like Captain America to be more palatable abroad. This has its downsides, since everything has to work for everybody everywhere, but corporate branding’s lack of loyalty to any nation at least minimizes pop culture’s interference in international brinkmanship between political buttholes.
And we get to hear what Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) sounds like speaking Russian, which is fun:
Wonder Woman is out in theaters June 2, but Russians get to see it a day early, on June 1.
