While the majority of DCEU actors are being left behind for DC Studios' DCU reboot, The Suicide Squad star Sean Gunn has already landed multiple roles in this new shared world.
He's already been cast as Creature Commandos' G.I. Robot and will reprise his previous role, Weasel, as well. While he'll likely play both of those CG characters in live-action somewhere down the line, his main on-camera role will be as the villainous Maxwell Lord.
The character is expected to be less of a full-blown baddie and more of an antagonist in the DCU, bringing the Wonder Woman 1984 character (where he was played by Pedro Pascal) more in line with his comic book counterpart.
Talking to Screen Rant about his place in the DCU, Gunn opened up on his roles and broke his silence on playing Lord, saying he's "a lot more grounded" and that he intends to portray him "in a more traditional way."
"It's true that they're all in the DC Universe, so there's that sort of extra element. But as an actor, I'm well-equipped to play a variety of different types of characters. And even me, as a very character actor, I've done so many different weird types of things. So it's like, in addition to those three characters that you mentioned, I have three different independent movies that I'm doing, starting next week and doing over the course of the next few months. So there's a whole bunch of characters that I'm trying to navigate, all of them."
"But for DC in particular, one of the things that makes it easy is that the Creature Commando's characters are so, well right now they're animated for Creature Commandos, but even if they were live action, like we've seen with Weasel, there's still CG, they'd be CG characters. GI Robot is also obviously a robot. Weasel, yes, he grunts and things, but it's mostly about the movement. GI is almost completely about the voice. So they're a little bit different from one another. And they're in the kind of far-flung reaches of the character spectrum of the universe."
"The other one you mentioned — who I'm not sure I can still technically mention publicly, even though obviously the word is out — all I can say is [Maxwell Lord] is a little bit more grounded in being. A lot more grounded, obviously, as a human being. And so that's a character that I'll tackle in a more traditional way."
On the page, Maxwell Lord was initially depicted as a shrewd entrepreneur and an ally to superheroes before later becoming a major antagonist, using mind control and manipulation to further his goals. He has clashed with various heroes, including the Justice League and in some storylines, his actions have had significant repercussions on the wider DC Universe.
It's unclear what the plan is for Lord or where we'll first see him, but SUPERMAN seems likely given that we'll see a group of superheroes there who may or may not make up an early iteration of the Justice League of America.
Are you excited to see Gunn's take on this character?