Despite earning a certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, ‘Wonder Woman’ can’t completely evade negative coverage; the heroine’s cinematic origin story has been banned in Lebanon because of star Gal Gadot’s Israeli nationality.
Warner Bros. Lebanon issued a short tweet detailing the abrupt change in scheduling.
Tension between Lebanon and Israel goes back to the mid-twentieth century, and the two countries are officially at war, though there haven’t been any widespread confrontations since 2006.
As The Guardian points out, ‘Wonder Woman’ was pulled due to pressure from the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel-Lebanon. The Campaign described the movie as “the Israeli Soldier film,” a likely reference to Gadot’s own two years of army service in Israel.
Still, many of Gadot’s other films, such as ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,’ were not subject to the same ban.
Politics aside, it is sad to see the film limited in this way, especially because it is the first major release for the Wonder Woman character and for female superheroes in general.
‘Wonder Woman’ is directed by Patty Jenkins, and boasts an all-star cast, including ‘Star Trek’ alum Chris Pine, ‘House of Cards’ star Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, and David Thewlis. The action-adventure blockbuster was released in the United States on June 2nd. Check out the trailer below:
And for another, albeit widely different look into the intersection between real world politics and the comic book genre, take a look at Donald Trump as Marvel’s latest supervillain.
