When finding her Amazons, director Patty Jenkins looked to sport to find some real Amazonian women. Real-life Cross Fit athletes, wrestlers, trainers, martial arts professionals, Olympians and even farmers were approached to make up the world’s ultimate girl gang.

Athletes such as American CrossFit champion Brooke Ence, Swedish fighter Madeleine Vall Beijner, farmer Clare Duncan, and martial artist Mayling Ng, met in London for weeks of training in horse riding, spear throwing and sword fighting, before shooting begun on Italy’s Amalfi coast.

“It was really cool to see this whole training area, and there’s not one male figure in sight” said Brooke Ence in an interview.

“Women wrestling other women, kickboxing, doing pull-ups and practicing with spears – just a lot of stuff that in the real world is very male-dominated.”

Watching the film, its obvious that these women set the tone of the film. They’re strong, muscly and hot on their own terms. They truly look like they could break you in half, because they truly can.

Hundreds of thousands of young girls will go and see this movie and be exposed to real athletes and female athleticism being celebrated. They’ll see powerful women kicking ass, though the gaze of a female director. We can’t underestimate how important that is.