The venerable tumblog DC Women Kicking Ass has gotten a hold of the casting sheet for David E. Kelley‘s Wonder Woman pilot, revealing what looks like the majority of the major characters of the show.
The new show will portray a Wonder Woman who is a “powerful C.E.O.”, and most of the characters named fall into the category of a CEO’s entourage. A press secretary/best friend, a personal assistant, and a second-in-command-CEO. Those who don’t fall into that category, naturally, are love interests.
Honestly, our favorite part? Liberal use of the phrase “open ethnicity” when used to describe casting requirements.
Aside from a character with a Spanish-derived last name and Diana herself, each character description specifically mentions that actors of any ethnicity may apply for the role. This even extends to Steve Trevor, one of Diana’s canonical love interests. While this doesn’t mean that the show will necessarily wind up with a diverse cast when the casting process is over, it’s nice to see the people behind the production putting out the effort. For Wonder Woman, NBC is looking for muscular actress with “Long flowing black hair, [and] blue eyes,” which doesn’t technically rule out other ethnicities, but I’m not so idealistic that I’d hope that a studio would cast a non-white woman as Wonder Woman, even though there’s currently one doing her voice in cartoons and it would be totally awesome.
Seriously though: the names. Myndi the BFF and publicist, name derived from Melissa, a nymph who helped secretly raise the fugitive baby Zeus. Etta, the personal assistant, derived from Henrietta and then Henry, a Germanic name that means “ruler of the home.” CEO Henry Demeter, named after the Greek goddess of the harvest and sometimes of the home.
We get it, guys. You’re excited that you get to play around with some classical mythological themes. But this approaches J.K. Rowling levels of the Meaningful Name Trope.
Read the whole casting release over at DC Women Kicking Ass.
