Since 2016, Gal Gadot, famously known as Wonder Woman, has been causing ripples in the predominantly male-driven superhero realm. Now, with her upcoming role in the Netflix spy action thriller "Heart of Stone," the Israeli actress is poised to give established icons like James Bond and the Mission: Impossible franchise a run for their money.
Gadot stars as international intelligence agent Rachel Stone, who works for the Charter, a peacekeeping organization that has been operating independently from governments for 20 years.
With all of its agents named after playing cards, the agency's most powerful weapon is an asset dubbed "The Heart," capable of hacking into phones, power grids, banks, governments, and health records.
Stone is tasked to protect the machine from a group of hackers led by Keya (Alia Bhatt).
Directed by Tom Harper, "Heart of Stone" has been designed from the start to become a match for the likes of 007, and just like her male counterparts, Gadot engages in one action-packed chase after another taking her from the Italian Alps to London, Lisbon, and the Senegalese desert all the way to Iceland.
While clearly able to hold her own when it comes to dangling from ski lifts or fighting on a blimp, the super agent, whose game card is the Nine of Hearts, has tech support from the Jack of Hearts, played by German actor Matthias Schweighöfer, who provides her with input from The Heart.
This often entails magically moving 3D simulations and holograms through the air, a task that had Schweighöfer struggling sometimes, as he admitted in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) a few weeks ago.
"I often ended up laughing as I stood in a huge room pulling off my dance routines while others tried to play their serious roles," he said.
As ridiculous as it might have looked, pretending to push around holograms turned out to be quite challenging, said the actor, who most recently starred in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer." "In addition to the perfectly choreographed hand movements, I also had to recite quite informative text."
"Heart of Stone"'s star-studded cast also includes Jamie Dornan and Glenn Close, but the focus is clearly on 38-year-old Gardot, who also acted as a producer.
There is no question that agent Stone can hold her own in terms of action and charm and comes as a much-welcome addition to the spy universe at a time when most Bond fans still can't imagine Daniel Craig being replaced by a woman.
While "Atomic Blonde" starring Charlize Theron or "Red Sparrow" starring Lawerence and "Nikita" by Luc Besson have seen their fair share of success, neither film has managed to spark a franchise. It might be time for Wonder Woman to have a go at it.
