Aside from earning $103.3 million during opening weekend in North America, being the highest grossing film directed by a woman, and earning 93% positive reviews on review site Rotten Tomatoes, Wonder Woman and its main character Diana Prince stand out for another reason.

Wonder Woman is joining my list of fictional-movie-and-television-characters-who-work-in-museums-or-have-art-history-degrees-which-only-tangentially-relate-to-the-main-narrative (phew, that’s a mouthful!). As the movie begins, we see Diana entering a stunning office in The Louvre surrounded by ancient arms and armor, receiving an archival photograph. It’s assumed that she is now part of their curatorial team, making her possibly the world’s only superhero art historian.

Back to this list… who’s on it?

Okay, my list is only eight characters long. But that is eight characters that have reputations for being smart and they’re tied together by academic major and/or career.

More interestingly, these backgrounds are mentioned as “throwaway” lines or occasional side plots and having little or nothing to do with the main narrative. Yet, we real-life museum workers get excited and see it as an exciting nod to our profession.

Is it chosen because our profession is unknown and mysterious?

Considered exciting?

Held to a higher moral standard?

Makes one seem really smart?

Are we just… cool?

For every line of dialogue that’s cut, why do these lines stay in?

How many more characters are also art historians and museologists but the dialogue gets cut before the final production?

There are, of course, also movies and television shows in which the main plot revolves around a museum or art historians:

Night at the Museum ’s Larry Daley is a security guard at the American Museum of Natural History; the movie trilogy bring him to the Smithsonian and British Museum.

The DaVinci Code ’s Jacques Sauni ère is a Louvre curator who is murdered, prompting Robert Langdon to solve the mystery of his death.

Mona Lisa Smile ’s Katherine Ann Watson teaches “History of Art” at Wellesley college.

But in each of these, the art history or museology plot is critical to the story. Then there are the movies about archaeologists and museologists who are actual real people doing real things, but I digress.

Going back to the original list of fictional-movie-and-television-characters-who-work-in-museums-or-have-art-history-degrees-which-only-tangentially-relate-to-the-main-narrative, my musings don’t have much of a conclusion as much as a wink back at the directors who wink at us. We notice. We get excited. And I hope that by making our profession the everyday life of demigods, futuristic medical doctors, political operatives, and spies, art history and museum work maintain a positive reputation.

Have some more movie-and-television art historians and museologists to share? Comment below or tweet @ me!