Gal Gadot Denies Donald Trump Inspired 'Wonder Woman 1984' Villain Max Lord

After several reviews have likened the latest villain featured in Wonder Woman 1984 as somewhat [...]

By Tania Hussain

After several reviews have likened the latest villain featured in Wonder Woman 1984 as somewhat based on Donald Trump, lead star, Gal Gadot is denying the comparison. In an interview with Variety ahead of the movie's premiere on HBO Max and theaters on Dec. 25, Gadot revealed while the film has "political elements," it's not a political movie at all, nor was anything intended to look "Trump-like" for Pedro Pascal's character, Maxwell Lord.

Gadot admits the entire comparison is "interesting" as when they shot it, they never gave it much thought toward that direction until they got to the White House scene. "Maxwell Lord has so many different versions in the comic books and I think that Patty and Dave [Callaham] and Geoff [Johns] — the writers — really took Gordon Gekko's personality," she said. "The thing about Maxwell Lord in our movie, unlike the comics, is that he's more complex because he's not just an evil villain. He is a regular person who wants to be all these things that you would see on TV."

The 35-year-old actress adds how actor Pascal, at a certain point had "just focused on the page and what was there," as the character was already there. "But we never tried to mimic anybody else. We never tried to mimic Trump or anything."

Gadot adds that while the movie has "political elements" to the nature of the world the film is set in, the characters are more "dealing with subjects" that are easily connected to politics. "But the movie is not about politics. The movie is about something that is much more simple. It's about truth and the power of truth and hope," she said.

She continues how the message of the movie really falls in line with the age-old adage "be careful what you wish for," something she had spoken with the director, Patty Jenkins about during filming for the first movie in 2016. "We felt like the Wonder Woman saga should be like the Bible, Gadot said. "The first chapter was about love and the birth of a hero. And when we discussed the plot for the second one, we already found the world was going to a dark place. We wanted to touch upon that — and I think that in the past few years, truth and fake news and all of these issues had been a hot potato, a hot topic. We wanted to touch on 'When is it too much? When are we just wanting more and we're not thinking about what's the cost of our want?'

Amid mass theater closures in most of North America, Wonder Woman 1984 was released on Dec. 25 by HBO Max and became available on video-on-demand. Bringing in a whopping $85 million worldwide during its opening holiday weekend, the film performed very well under the current climate, becoming the biggest film to open during the coronavirus pandemic. Wonder Woman 1984 is now streaming on HBO Max and available on demand.

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