Sean Gunn Reveals His Take on DCU’s Maxwell Lord

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe is gearing up for an exciting year, with the first cinematic entry set to hit the big screen next summer with Superman. The larger franchise has already confirmed several surprising casting decisions, including Sean Gunn as the businessman Maxwell Lord. While it remains unconfirmed if Gunn’s portrayal of Lord will make an appearance in Superman, recent set photos hint that his company, Lord Tech, might be playing a significant role in the superhero community.

In a recent interview with The Wrap, James Gunn shared some insights about his approach to the character of Maxwell Lord.

“I can’t talk too much about it,” Gunn said. “I can say that my brother James and I discussed what reference materials from the canon were relevant to my process. I love doing my own music.”

Gunn continued, “I can’t say that much, other than we did talk about relevant materials, and we discussed the character in detail before I dove in. We referenced no live performances of the character. It’s all from written materials with things that we figure we’re looking at.”

Maxwell Lord, created by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire, made his debut in 1987’s Justice League #1. Introduced as the secret benefactor of the Justice League International roster, Lord initially aimed to reimagine the superhero team on a global scale. However, unbeknownst to the team, Lord was being mentally manipulated by an alien computer program. He eventually broke free, establishing himself as a shady businessman.

Over time, Lord transformed into a supervillain. During the events of Infinite Crisis, it was revealed that he had been secretly gathering intelligence on the entire superhero community to use against them. The storyline began with him brutally murdering Ted Kord and ended with Wonder Woman snapping Lord’s neck, with the footage broadcasted worldwide. Although he was eventually resurrected, he has continued to be both an adversary and a suspicious ally within the DC Universe. Lord has previously been portrayed in live action by Peter Facinelli in The CW’s Supergirl and Pedro Pascal in the film Wonder Woman 1984.

DC Studios’ upcoming slate includes a host of new projects. The first chapter will feature movies such as 2025’s Superman and 2026’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, as well as the currently undated films The Brave and the Bold, Swamp Thing, and The Authority. On the television side, fans can look forward to an animated Creature Commandos series, the second season of Peacemaker, and future shows like Waller, Booster Gold, Lanterns, and Paradise Lost. Additionally, an animated Jurassic League movie and a live-action Teen Titans movie are reportedly in the works, although they have not been officially confirmed by DC Studios.

In January 2023, Gunn addressed comparisons between the DC Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “A lot of people think it’s going to be Marvel 2.0, and definitely I learned a lot of stuff at Marvel. I think that we have a lot of differences,” he explained. “We are telling a big, huge, central story that is like Marvel, except for, I think that we’re a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we’ve gotten a group of writers together to work that story out completely.”

Gunn added, “We’re also creating a universe that is like Star Wars, where there’s different times, different places, different things, or Game of Thrones, where characters are a little bit more morally complex.”

Superman is scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on July 11, 2025.

Source: ComicBook.com