by Ana

It takes a talented actress to transform herself into a single character who can defy aliens, monsters, or attacking spaceships. But to do it in more than one role is basically just ruling the world. In this article, I’ll discuss some ladies who have definitely earned the title of “Queens” in my book-if not badasses. Let’s see who made the cut, shall we?

1. Gina Torres. She is most known for her role as Zoe in Firefly. She played an evil dead mother thing on Angel, she fought hand-to-hand combat with Jennifer Gardner on Alias, she was a sidekick to both Hercules and Xena, and she most recently starred as Natalie Waters, nemesis to Victoria, on the show Revenge. Gina Torres knows what her fans love. In every role, she plays a strong woman who doesn’t take crap from anyone in this world. She commands when she walks into a room.

2. Morena Baccarin. This actress also comes to us from a background on the show Firefly. She played a seductress name Inara who used people’s underestimation of her to help her friends. She was also on the TV show V as an evil alien mother. And she has most recently become Dr. Leslie Thompson on Gotham. What Baccarin brings to the table is her ability to always have a veil of secrecy. We usually believe her to be good, because honestly she looks sweet and innocent. But the audience is almost always taken in and her roles show an underlying sense of evil we could never have imagined.

3. Zoe Saldana. Zoe’s commonality in her roles usually includes a woman who has been through an emotional time, but uses those emotions to make herself stronger and a better fighter. People are tricked by her slender frame, but then they usually get karate kicked right after. She has starred in such fan favorites as Star Trek, Star Trek Into The Darkness, and this year’s upcoming Star Trek Beyond. She also played Neytiri in Avatar and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

4. Chloe Grace Mortez. Chloe is still fairly new to the science fiction universe, but I believe with the release of her upcoming film, The 5th Wave, people will begin comparing her to Katniss Everdeen from Mockingjay. The role she first wowed me in was her role as Mindy in the movies Kickass and Kickass 2. In those films, she plays a young girl determined to be a hero and armed with some martial arts moves. She has also played a vampire in Let Me In, a psychopathic telekinetic teenager in the movie Carrie, and a werewolf in (spoiler alert) Dark Shadows.

5. Sigourney Weaver. Let’s face it. You can’t give a list of women in the science fiction world without talking about Sigourney Weaver. She was in the Alien movies-some of the best science fiction movies of all time, in my humble opinion. And she was in The Village, The Cabin in the Woods. The Ghostbusters Sigourney usually brings a level of manipulative intelligence that can’t be argued with. Her roles are women who are either forced into being put in charge or have clawed their way to the top. Even when she is a damsel in distress she does it in such a powerful way that you would never know there is any trouble.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of ladies I think have either made a mark in our fantasy worlds or will be making one soon. Who do you think I should have added to the list and why?