Two milliseconds after my initial glimpse of Pedro Pascal‘s “Maxwell Lord” character in the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer, I flashed on a 30something Donald Trump.

In a day-old Independent piece by Adam White, WW84 costume designer Lindy Hemming acknowledged that Lord was partly inspired by Orange Plague.

Excerpt #1: “That’s helpful to look at Donald Trump, isn’t it?” Hemming teased. “There is something about the period of Donald Trump and being a businessman, isn’t there, of being rather sleazy a little bit, and a bit goofy [in the] hair and a lot of talk. So that’s why he’s there. Yeah, so that’s it, really.”

Excerpt #2: “Director Patty Jenkins has suggested that Trump served as just one of a number of inspirations for the character. ‘He’s one of them,’ Jenkins told Screen Rant. ‘I mean honestly, the funny thing is he is [an influence], but I’m not trying to make…I don’t want to get political, it’s not about being political.’”

(l.) Pedro Pascal as “Maxwell Lord; (r.) Donald Trump in the mid ’80s.

 Sidenote: Who or what is the female hyena monster [after the jump]?

I’m still trying to figure how Chris Pine‘s “Steve Trevor” is alive and kicking around. He blew himself up inside a plane (“It has to be me”) in the original. No ambiguity — blown to bits.

Wonder Woman 1984 was originally slated for release on 12.13.19, before being advanced to 11.1.19. It was then delayed to 6.5.20. On 3.23.202 COVID concerns bumped it to 8.14.20. Then it was bumped again to 10.2.20.