Actor Proposes Casting Anti-Israel Star Melissa Barrera to Replace Gal Gadot in Next ‘Wonder Woman’ Film
by Shiryn Ghermezian
(L-R) Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera attend ‘The Copenhagen Test’ Season 2025 New York Screening, at the Whitby, New York, NY, December 16, 2025. Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Canadian actor Simu Liu said he thinks Mexican actress Melissa Barrera, his costar on “The Copenhagen Test,” would be a great Wonder Woman to replace Israeli actress Gal Gadot in the upcoming DC Universe film by James Gunn about Diana Prince.
“James Gunn or anybody else out there, I think she really pushes herself,” said Liu, who starred in Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” during a recent interview with JoBlo. “There were a couple of moments during stunt training where I was like ‘That’s Wonder Woman-esque.’ I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t know who’s watching or listening to this interview, but I just think she’s a total badass. And she puts in the work.”
Barrera came under fire in November 2023 for sharing posts on social media that accused Israel of genocide and criticized the Jewish state during its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, following their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7 of that year. The actress uploaded posts on Instagram that described Israel as a “colonized” land and suggested that the Jewish state controls the media. “Western media only shows the other side,” she wrote. “Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself. We don’t need more hate. No Islamophobia. No antisemitism.”
She additionally criticized the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also shared posts from other accounts that featured messages calling for “every civil institution” to boycott Israel. She additionally shared a post that includes claims about manipulating facts related to the Holocaust “to boost the Israeli arms industry,” according to the BBC.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” Barrera wrote in one post on her Instagram Story in 2023. “Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING [sic].”
Barrera was fired from the film “Scream 7” following her social media posts against Israel. In a statement to Variety magazine, a spokesman for the franchise’s production company Spyglass said its stance was “unequivocally clear.”
“We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion, or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech,” the statement noted.
Hours after her firing was announced, Barrera shared a statement on Instagram claiming that she condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia, and all forms of hate and prejudice.
“Every person on this earth … deserves equal human rights, dignity and, of course, freedom,” she added. “I believe a group of people are NOT their leadership, and that no governing body should be above criticism. I pray day and night for no more deaths, for no more violence, and for peaceful co-existence. I will continue to speak out for those that need it most and continue to advocate for peace and safety, for human rights and freedom. Silence is not an option for me.”
Then, early last year, the “In the Heights” star posted a link in her Instagram bio that directed supporters to donate money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to benefit “all the martyrs in Gaza and the West Bank,” Variety reported. She shared the link after it was alleged that a number of UNRWA staffers participated in Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, assisted in kidnapping Israelis that day, and had other close ties to Hamas. The United Nations later admitted that nine UNRWA employees were fired over their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.
Barrera and Liu were among the many celebrities who signed an open letter by Artists4Ceasefire in October 2023 that called for an immediate ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war, a release of the hostages taken by the terrorist organization after its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, and an end to “the bombing in Gaza.” The letter makes no mention of the Hamas terrorist organization by name, which slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, took more than 200 civilian hostages from Israel. and led to the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Liu is not the first to nominate Barrera as the next Wonder Woman. Several publications have ranked her among the top contenders for the role, and she addressed the topic in an interview with the online publication A Shot Magazine in April 2025.
“I think whoever gets the role, I just hope that they can embody the essence of the character because I think that those movies, whether they’re Marvel or DC, their reach is so big,” she said. “And because those artists that get those roles will inevitably get a built-in fanbase and have the eyes and the ears of so many people, I think that it would be nice if they did something actually positive with the influence that they have to at least be a good example of the kind of human being that you wanna be in the world, instead of just using it for self-serving purposes.”
