With only brief glimpses of the character at this point, many Wonder Woman 1984 fans are wondering if Pedro Pascal‘s Maxwell Lord is meant to be inspired by Donald Trump, with the actor himself revealing that he instead looked to Wall Street‘s Gordon Gekko as more direct inspiration. Understandably, with both Gekko and Trump being entrepreneurs in the ’80s, and with the new film set in the ’80s, it feels as though the character will adhere more to the archetype of wealth from that decade that audiences can expect, though Maxwell Lord will surely stand on his own as a nefarious threat. Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters and HBO Max on December 25th.
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“What’s fascinating is that there are so many … I’ll be totally honest with you, when I first started talking to [director] Patty [Jenkins] about it, I was like, ‘We’re doing Gordon Gekko, right? Like, this is Gordon Gekko,’” Pascal shared during a SiriusXM Town Hall event. “And she’s like, ‘It’s not one, it’s not any one thing,’ especially that polished. Like, we’re not going to lean into that. You know what I mean? It’s essentially for everyone, for every character, for Diana in 1984 and how much lonelier she is and everything that Gal [Gadot] has just described and, and the evolution of what becomes Cheetah and where Max Lord’s intentions are born from, it’s all so much more vulnerable than you would expect.”
He continued, “And so, really, that was the thing that we really focused on. And then, of course, stylistically when Lindy Hemming, genius in costume design, we referenced a bunch of characters that are familiar to us, but I didn’t use any of that to build this particular character. It was really what was on the page. And then just where Patty would guide me and insist.”
While the character might not be directly connected to Trump, Jenkins’ description of the character will surely result in such comparisons.
“Max Lord is a character very much of the time period the movie is in, he’s the King of Infomercials, and he’s selling a dream to the public, and he’ll do anything to be successful,” Jenkins detailed during a convention appearance last year. “But sometimes when you get what you want, greatness comes with a price. So that’s Maxwell Lord.”
Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters and HBO Max on December 25th.
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