When Superman hits theaters over the summer, it will mark the second time this decade that DC villain Maxwell Lord appears on the big screen. Pedro Pascal played the entrepreneur as the main antagonist in 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984, opposite former Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot. In July, Sean Gunn will deliver a new take on the character in his brother James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie.
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In addition to voicing Weasel and G.I. Robot in Creature Commandos, Sean Gunn will get the chance to actually have his face in front of the camera in Superman. We don’t know how much his Maxwell Lord will be featured in the film, but he seems primed for a lengthier role in the DCU moving forward.
Even though we’ve already seen a version of Maxwell Lord on screen very recently, you can expect Gunn’s take to be quite a bit different in this DCU. During a recent appearance on the Kristian Harloff Show, Sean Gunn opened up about his portrayal of Lord in Superman.
“I can tell you that the one obvious thing is it’s me playing the role. It doesn’t just mean I’m going to give a different interpretation,” Gunn explained. “Your own body is the vessel for what you’re doing, so obviously…no one is gonna confuse me and Pedro Pascal’s performance. So we’re obviously going to do something different.”
He went on to say that one of the big differences between his and Pascal’s versions of Lord is that James Gunn’s direction led him back to some specific source material from the pages of DC Comics.
“I think that James is good about directing me towards the relevant source material,” Gunn continued. “So, I think, the whole concept of the character takes a different type of tack. I saw the movie and Pedro is obviously a great actor, but what he does in that movie is not really relevant to anything that I’m doing.”
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It will certainly be exciting to see what Gunn brings to the table with Maxwell Lord, especially if he is going to be getting an entire arc with the character. Traditionally, Lord is a character who starts off working alongside DC’s heroes before eventually turning into an antagonist. He will probably have an opportunity to do just that in the budding DCU, appearing in its first live-action movie in what appears to be a small, supporting role. There’s nothing but room to grow from there.
Superman is set to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.
