What’s the difference between Wonder Woman and Katniss Everdeen?

Katniss has her own movie. Wonder Woman, despite her status as a leading comic book character for seven decades, does not. In fact, Warner Brothers announced that the illustrious heroine’s first appearance on the big screen will be as a minor character in a movie starring two male superheroes.

Iconic female characters are hard to find in American culture. While most people would have no trouble recognizing Superman, Batman, or Darth Vader, they would have a much harder time naming a female character of equal notoriety.

Wonder Woman, whose roots date back to World War II, is perhaps the only significant female character who appeals to a mass audience. Diana Prince, the warrior princess of the mythological Greek island of Themyscira, is both a feminist icon, representing empowerment and womanly strength, and a sex symbol, wearing skimpy clothes as she vanquishes evil. Very few characters – and even fewer female ones – enjoy the stature of Wonder Woman. So why has Princess Diana been unable to find her way to the silver screen?

Historically, it has been difficult to get comic book heroes onto the big screen. However, following the success of the X-Men and Spider–Man movies in the 00?s, studios came to rely on superhero properties to prop up the industry in the face of a decreasing home video market. The rise of the superhero in Hollywood led many to assume that all of DC Comics’s hottest properties would make their way to the silver screen. Yet, after several attempts including one by future Avengers helmsman Joss Whedon, Wonder Woman has never been able to make the jump.

Hollywood is known to abide by old theories about who pays for movie tickets. Despite women making up a full 50 percent of the movie-going audience, females comprise only 28 percent of speaking roles in major motion pictures, according to a study by the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.

Studio executives cite previous failures such as Elektra and Catwoman as proof that a female lead can’t sell tickets, ignoring the fact that those movies were unpopular for their content and not the lack of a male lead. Even accepting that the failure of those movies can be attributed to a lack of interest in the characters, neither Catwoman nor Elektra shares the status of the princess of Themyscira.

Falling in line with that outdated mindset, Warner Brothers recently announced the casting of Gal Gadot of Fast and Furious fame in the role of Diana Prince for the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie. While the title is only tentative, it is telling that the use of Batman in the Man of Steel sequel was met with great fanfare and widespread Internet reaction, while Wonder Woman was mentioned months later as a simple casting choice. Is Wonder Woman any less iconic than DC’s other “big two” heroes? Even if that is true, there is no stronger female character to portray on the big screen than Wonder Woman.

Superhero movies, just like the comic books they are based on, are consistently targeted to men. Nonetheless, Wonder Woman comics have sold well enough to survive for over 60 years. The market clearly exists, and casting a beautiful woman to portray Princess Diana would hardly hurt studios’ efforts to syphon away the cash of any fan of the female form. It is naive to believe that a Wonder Woman movie wouldn’t be seen by millions.

Despite Warner Brothers’ fears, the overwhelming success of The Hunger Games, both in print and on screen, has shown that a strong female hero can not only sell tickets in today’s world, but also create a cultural phenomenon. Katniss Everdeen is a new character, only existing in the public consciousness for a few years, making the original Hunger Games movie a bigger box office gamble than Wonder Woman could ever be.

The second installment in the series, Catching Fire, was the highest grossing film domestically in 2013, surpassing even the male-led Iron Man 3. Katniss Everdeen and The Hunger Games franchise have shown that a character who is both strong and compassionate has great crossover appeal, not only drawing teenage girls to the theaters, but men and women of all ages, including the male audience of comic book adaptations.

Admittedly, Wonder Woman is a difficult character to adapt. Her background in Greek mythology makes a reality-based movie á la the Dark Knight trilogy essentially impossible. Still, as Marvel’s Thor has proven, the world of myth can be fused with the gritty realism of the modern action flick to create an even more compelling spectacle. Remember during The Avengers when the multiple worlds of the superheroes collided to create something greater than its cinematic parts? With the mythological stature of Themyscira meeting the gritty, crime-infested world of Gotham City, Warner Brothers has a great opportunity to create something equally special.

Wonder Woman has certainly had her ups and downs over the decades, including an ill-advised run in the comics as a depowered Kung Fu master. Still, Wonder Woman was one of the very few comic book characters to break out of her original medium when Lynda Carter played the character on a successful television show in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, this success has never been matched, and a recent attempt at bringing the character back to the small screen has been scuttled in favor of a new show for The Flash. CW president Mark Pedowitz recently confirmed this travesty, reasoning, “These are iconic characters … You only get one shot.”

This leaves Gadot’s interpretation as the only Wonder Woman we can expect on any screen for some time. The tentatively titled Batman vs. Superman movie hits theaters in May 2016.

With Catching Fire continuing to prove old theories wrong, Warner Brothers is missing a golden opportunity to break with tradition and make millions with a strong woman. The long-term track record of female-led films has been lackluster, but the tide appears to be turning. In addition to The Hunger Games, the female-led Twilight Saga is among the top 10 most successful movie franchises of all time, making as much money as male-centric properties Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean.

An iconic character of American culture, Wonder Woman’s first foray onto the silver screen should not be in a throwaway scene in a movie about two other, very strong, characters. Women make up a much larger portion of the movie viewing audience than Warner Brothers is willing to accept, and Wonder Woman, like Katniss Everdeen, is a character with strong crossover appeal who should be respected.

Wonder Woman deserves her own movie.