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Are fans getting more of the same Maxwell Lord? Sean Gunn reveals how his take on the villain in the DC Universe will differ from Pedro Pascal’s performance.
Fans were a bit worried when it was first revealed that Sean Gunn would be taking on the role of Maxwell Lord in the new DC Universe. This wasn’t only because it’d be the fourth character Gunn would be playing after Weasel, G.I. Robot, and Calendar Man, though. Rather, it was because the villain was previously portrayed by Pedro Pascal in Wonder Woman 1984. While that film was far from well-received, many saw Pascal as a shining beacon of charisma that at least made the project worth sitting through.
Concerns began to mount that, for as charming as Sean Gunn was, he wouldn’t be able to live up to the internet’s favorite grumpy old dad Pedro Pascal. Luckily, it seems Gunn has no plans to go toe-to-toe with Pascal when it comes to their takes on Maxwell Lord. During a recent chat with Kristian Harloff, the actor confirmed that nobody will be able to confuse the two’s performances when he finally makes his debut in the DC Universe.
“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. 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.”
How Sean Gunn’s Maxwell Lord Will Differ From Pedro Pascal
While every actor brings something unique to a performance, in franchises like the DC Universe, different incarnations of a character can often be echoic if they draw from similar sources. This isn’t something Sean Gunn is worrying about, revealing that his brother James Gunn is good at pointing him to sources of inspiration, all of which put him on a completely different path from Pedro Pascal’s iteration of Maxwell Lord.
“I think that James is good about directing me towards the relevant source material. 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.”
Pedro Pascal’s take on the villain leaned heavily into the televangelists popular in the 1980s (and through today). It was a very unorthodox take on Maxwell Lord, albeit an effective one. If Sean Gunn does have a stack of relevant comics, it’s likely his incarnation of the character in the DC Universe will be nearly entirely divorced from Pascal’s interpretation.
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