Why Hawkgirl From James Gunn's Superman Looks So Familiar

James Gunn's long-awaited "Superman" movie, it seems, has everything, to paraphrase "Saturday Night Live" standout Stefon. There's a cute dog! Great chemistry between David Corenswet's Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane! Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl! When it comes to that third one, it genuinely is exciting to see a young performer as talented as Merced take on the role of Hawkgirl, a superhero who's associated with three different women in the original DC comics (specifically, Shiera Sanders Hall, Shayera Hol, and Kendra Saunders). Merced, who plays the role of Kendra Saunders in Gunn's movie, explained that, as a reincarnated former alien who joins the Justice Gang, Kendra has a genuinely troubled and even dark backstory, which she briefly discussed during an appearance on the DC Studios Official Showcase Podcast.

"Kendra is reincarnated, but she's reincarnated from an alien," Merced clarified. "So, she has all those memories. The story is actually really dark, it's actually so f**ked up that I wonder how they're going to handle that when it comes to addressing that. I think she carries all of the memories and the traumas and the mistakes of her past lives in her body wherever she goes, so she has a little bit of a grumpy demeanor."

This is a pretty heavy description of Kendra, but thankfully, we know from Gunn's work on movies like "Guardians of the Galaxy" that he can balance pathos and humor pretty easily. With all that said, why does Isabela Merced look so familiar? Truthfully, the actress has been in quite a lot of projects after getting her start in 2013 with "The House That Jack Built," including 2018's sequel "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" and HBO Max's 2022 remake of "Father of the Bride," just to name a few. Though we've narrowed it down to some of her bigger performances, here's where you've seen this rising star before.

In 2024, Isabela Merced joined the supporting cast of "Madame Web," one of Sony's many (and, frankly, rough) attempts to create an extended universe that would be known as Sony's "Spider-Man" Universe, or the SSU. This entire endeavor, which also led to the 2022 release of "Morbius," pretty much fizzled out after the box office failure of "Kraven the Hunter," and unfortunately, "Madame Web" was also a critical and commercial flop, earning dreadful reviews and barely breaking even at the box office.

Still, Merced plays Anya Corazon, a young woman who, alongside Sydney Sweeney's Julia Cornwall and Celeste O'Connor's Mattie Franklin, has a future as a Spider-Woman ... which means they're all being hunted by the movie's antagonist Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, who was apparently never physically present on set based on just how much ADR, or Automated Dialogue Replacement, was used for his performance). That's why the titular Cassandra Webb, played somewhat lazily by Dakota Johnson, tries to rescue the girls and get them out of harm's way. The movie is, to put it lightly, not great, but it's fun if you're looking for something pretty dumb! Plus, Merced apparently lied to Warner Bros. and DC about her role as Anya so that there wasn't a conflict of interest between the two superhero flicks.

As Merced exclusively told ComicBook.com in early 2024 when "Madame Web," was released, she does think the movie prepared her for her role as Hawkgirl in "Superman," but she basically didn't admit that she'd been in a different superhero movie before. "Oh absolutely," Merced said, again confirming that "Madame Web" helped get her ready for another super-story. "And I was like, 'Is it possible to do both?' I know people have, but why would I be able to do it? So I just didn't tell them about 'Madame Web.'" Not only that, but some of her specific training on that movie served her well: "They asked, 'Oh, do you have any previous stunt training?' And I said, 'Yeah, but I don't remember where I did it. I was in a harness too, I don't know where."

Introduced in the second season of HBO's blockbuster series "The Last of Us" (which is based on Naughty Dog's beloved Playstation games), Isabela Merced's Dina quickly became one of the show's most pivotal characters. A longtime resident of the protected settlement of Jackson, Wyoming, Dina is best friends with one of our protagonists, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and in an on-again, off-again relationship with another Jackson settler Jesse (Young Mazino), but after Ellie and Dina both lose their (somewhat shared) father figure Joel (Pedro Pascal), they want revenge ... and set off on a dangerous journey together to avenge Joel and take down his killer Abby (fellow newcomer Kaitlyn Dever). 

During said Journey, Ellie makes a shocking discovery; she's pregnant, and it's Jesse's baby. Obviously, this puts a new kind of pressure on her to survive, knowing that she's going to bring new life into the world even as the world crumbles in the wake of the cordyceps virus (which turns infected people into bloodthirsty zombies with trees growing out of their heads). Not only that, but Ellie and Dina embark on a romantic relationship of their own, admitting that they're in love with each other in the midst of this apocalypse. In an interview with Elle, Merced broke down Dina's backstory — in which her family was killed by raiders and she killed one of them in return at just 8 years old — and ultimately said she thinks Dina is a great companion and contrast to the angry, vengeful Ellie.

"I think Dina playing into the idea of 'good is good and bad is bad; there's no gray area; we either seek justice or we don't, and then we regret it the rest of our lives' is really consistent with the rest of the characters' approach to loss, trauma, and grief," Merced said of her character. "I thought it was important for Dina to establish that she's not high and mighty above the rest of the characters simply because she seems to be the level-headed one in her relationship with Ellie. She needed to show her own inability to move on unless she seeks 'justice.'"

Not only that, but she spoke to Dina's raw power as a fighter and survivor; Dina can be aloof, irreverent, and funny, but she's also a zombie-killing machine. "The cheeriest people in the room are often the most underestimated," Merced shared. "I think that's what makes Dina so wonderful in my eyes: She's equally as strong and potentially terrifying as Ellie, but she goes about it in a different way. I think she plays into who people want her to be, whereas Ellie doesn't care to do that."

"The Last of Us" is streaming on HBO Max, "Madame Web" is available to watch on Netflix, and "Superman" flies into theaters on July 11.