Wonder Woman 1984’s Pedro Pascal Reflects on His Role in Failed Wonder Woman TV Pilot

Nearly a decade before Pedro Pascal played greedy businessman Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984, [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Nearly a decade before Pedro Pascal played greedy businessman Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984, the feature film out now in theaters and on HBO Max, he appeared opposite Adrianne Palicki in the 2011 Wonder Woman television pilot that never made it to air. Scripted and produced by David E. Kelley (The Practice and Ally McBeal) for Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment, the Jeffrey Reiner-directed pilot was not picked up at NBC. Pascal played LAPD detective Ed Indelicato, described by the actor as Diana Prince's (Palicki) liaison to the LAPD, and the role was "like a dream come true."

"David E. Kelley's influence on television when I was freshly out of college was so huge, and I watched every episode of [Palicki's series] Friday Night Lights. I also thought that whether it was good or not, it would definitely get picked up," Pascal told Variety. "So that would change my financial situation significantly, even if it was half a season before it got canceled. But it didn't even get picked up. I went back to procedurals, you know, CSI and such. Had a pretty bad year after that interest in terms of like very sporadic work."

Pascal would go on to appear in ABC's Body of Proof, the long-running CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Showtime's Homeland before landing recurring roles in Graceland and The Mentalist. It would lead Pascal to Game of Thrones, and then Narcos, and then The Mandalorian.

Asked if the WW84 producers were aware of Pascal's first encounter with Wonder Woman, he said, "It didn't actually occur to me, which is kind of crazy. They must have either not have known or not cared. Yeah. I'm not sure, but it is sort of like an anecdotal thing that completely flew past them."

Pascal's role in WW84, where he's a wish-granting capitalist who clashes with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), was offered to him by director-producer Patty Jenkins after they collaborated on a pilot in 2014. That pilot also did not get picked up to series.

"I did a brilliant pilot with Patty that Charles Randolph wrote called 'Exposed,' with this unbelievable cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ben Barnes, Brían F. O'Byrne, Fran Kranz," Pascal said. "It was so well written and it didn't get picked up, but I got to work with Patty for like three days or something and then thought I'd never see her again."

Starring Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Pine, Wonder Woman 1984 is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.

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