Pedro Pascal will play a villain named Maxwell Lord in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ but who is that character exactly? Find out in our deep dive on the character…
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ won’t be released until June 5, 2020 but director Patty Jenkins leaked out a little more information about the highly anticipated film with a tease on Twitter this week.
Well hello… Max. #WW1984 pic.twitter.com/BgWsjyJixw
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) October 24, 2019
Jenkins tagged ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Pedro Pascal, who has already been confirmed as one of the lead roles opposite Gal Gadot in the upcoming ‘Wonder Woman’ sequel, while posting a photo with the tag line ‘well hello, Max’. The photo belongs to DC villain Maxwell Lord, who has been a frequent enemy of Wonder Woman and the Justice League over years.
But who is Maxwell Lord exactly?
The character was first created in 1987 as a wealthy businessman and the son of Maxwell Lord III, who was a captain of enterprise who always tried to help people but he ultimately took his own life when he realized one of the products his company was producing was carcinogenic. In Lord’s initial origin story, he carried on his father’s work while becoming fascinated with superheroes and he even ended up as a major financial backer for the Justice League. Lord attempted to usurp control over the Justice League while bringing the group into the spotlight after the events of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’.
During another event when a gene bomb exploded on Earth, granting powers and abilities to numerous people who were affected by the weapon, Lord gained the power of suggestion to implant thoughts and commands into people’s minds.
Years later, Lord’s backstory was retconned and it turned out his passion for superheroes was actually an elaborate ruse while he was secretly gathering information on them out of fear that people with abilities could ultimately create havoc on Earth. Because Lord was able to control the minds of the superheroes, he wondered how long it would be before someone with more nefarious motives did the same and used somebody like Superman as a weapon.
Lord also worked to develop different kinds of technologies including a super computer that could monitor and control all of the other computers on Earth. There have been past incarnations of the character on the CW series ‘Smallville’ and Lord was a major part of the first season of ‘Supergirl’ when the show aired on CBS.
Now Pascal will take up the role of Maxwell Lord when he joins ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ alongside Kristen Wiig, who will also be a featured villain in the movie when she plays Cheetah.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ opens in theaters on June 5, 2020.
