Wonder Woman 1984's Ending Serves Max Lord, But Not Cheetah
While Diana spares with two villains in Wonder Woman 1984, only Maxwell Lord receives a full arc and resolution, leaving Cheetah's ending unresolved.
Despite the fact that Diana (Gal Gadot) faces off against two villains in Wonder Woman 1984 - the oil tycoon Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and the gemologist Barbara Minerva, a.k.a. Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) - Lord is the only antagonist who receives a full character arc and resolution by the end of the Wonder Woman sequel. Similar to how Ares (David Thewlis) catalyzes World War I by corrupting humanity with violence in Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984 has the God of Lies influence mankind indirectly through the Dreamstone, an artifact that grants cursed wishes, which sways both Lord and Minerva to embark on a quest for more power.
After his oil company goes bankrupt, Lord searches for the Dreamstone as a last ditch effort to prove he’s successful to his son, Alistair (Lucian Perez), and the rest of the world. Through a series of flashbacks, it’s revealed that Lord dreamed of financial success as an impoverished child, who was mocked by his peers for his tattered clothes. Having researched the Dreamstone beforehand, Lord discovers a loophole to receive multiple wishes by becoming the Dreamstone itself, granting other people’s wishes and taking something belonging to them in exchange. Ignorant of the Dreamstone’s true power, Barbara wishes to be more like Diana on a whim, but instantly enjoys the attention and authority she commands with Diana’s strength, glamour, and confidence at the cost of her own humanity. While both antagonists have similar beginnings of feeling overlooked and powerless before finding the stone, Lord is the only villain whose story is complete by the end of Wonder Woman 1984.
After he becomes the Dreamstone, Lord is obsessed with granting wishes because of the authority he receives in return, going from a “loser” to the most powerful man in the world overnight. After Lord acquires full control of his company Black Gold and vengeance against his shareholder Simon Stagg (Oliver Cotton), gains ownership over half of the world’s oil reserves, and receives Ronald Reagan’s (Stuart Milligan) authority as president, he’s attained everything he wanted - but still wants more. As Lord grants wishes to people all over the world through President Reagan’s Star Wars program, Diana uses her Lasso of Truth to help him realize that his hungry pursuit of achieving more made him lose the one precious thing he had all along: his son. While it’s never made clear if Lord is arrested for his crimes, his story is pretty much resolved after he renounces his wish and reconciles with Alistair.
Unlike Lord, Cheetah’s character arc is left incomplete by the end of Wonder Woman 1984. Since Barbara’s first wish exchanged her humanity for strength, the more strength she acquired, the more humanity she lost, which is why Barbara fully transforms into Cheetah when Lord grants her “rage” and “prowess.” As people around the world renounce their wishes, Cheetah is shown very briefly back in her human form mournfully looking at the sunrise, but it’s never explained why she renounced her wish or returned to her friendly but insecure self.
During Diana and Cheetah’s final fight, Barbara vows to never give up her newfound power, which makes it more likely that Barbara’s second wish was taken from her when Lord renounced his wish since Barbara's rage and prowess was one of the exchanges Lord gained granting wishes as the Dreamstone. While her story may have been left unresolved with the intention of setting up Cheetah’s return in the sequel, Cheetah’s vaguely distraught expression is the only hint at Barbara’s end or possible future in the DCEU, which points towards vengeance against Diana.
Alternatively, Cheetah’s story may have been left open-ended because it matches the moral of Wonder Woman 1984: that you could have everything you want in life and still have nothing of true value. Since Cheetah is one of the few characters who appears to keep her first wish, leaving her ending unresolved might suggest that Cheetah is still being overlooked, even with Diana's glamour and confidence, because she ultimately sacrificed her true self for her desires.