Wonder Woman 1984: Pedro Pascal Reveals Comic Inspirations For Max Lord

In Wonder Woman 1984, Pedro Pascal joins the ranks of those playing DC Comics villains with his role of Maxwell Lord. This cinematic take on the character who has appeared in comic books since 1987 and in various animated forms along the way does not have any identical counterpart in those mediums. Pascal plays a unique version of the character (in part because of is definitive performance which spares no drop of enthusiasm) as the script reinvents Max Lord for the big screen. Still, Pascal did his homework, as he is very familiar with the various iterations of Max Lord in comics.

“Definitively with this character particular, we were really trying to honor an earlier version of Max Lord in the DC comics,” Pascal told ComicNook.com. “And then surprisingly, I kinda had to shed away other specific references, to kinda of go after something that is unique to this particular movie, I guess, in an attempt to surprise you with, I guess, not necessarily what you would expect and so that was really delicious to just kinda go all in and to discover that every day with [director Patty Jenkins]. I mean, basically, if it works, I credit… I give her all of the credit and if it doesn’t it’s definitely her fault!”

Pascal’s jokes about faulting Jenkins are just that. The actor expressed an extreme level of trust and appreciation for his director on Wonder Woman 1984, the same director who recently joined him in the Star Wars family. “I said, ‘Yes,’ to it before I read the script,” Pascal says.

Having been a fan of Jenkins and Wonder Woman herself Gal Gadot, there wasn’t much that could have kept him out of this film, it sounds. “They could have been asked me to play a piece of furniture,” he laughs. “Charles Roven, the producer, I was working with at the time a nd he’s a powerhouse of a man and has taken such good care of me. And then Patty, I’m a fan from the very, very first movie, to what she’s done on TV, the first Wonder Woman movie and so, for an actor to get to work with her it doesn’t get better, really. I mean it.”

Max Lord first appeared in comics in Justice League #1 in May of 1987. Are you excited to see Pascal play the character in a movie? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!

Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters and on HBO Max on December 25.