Wonder Woman 1984 nearly went in a different direction with its main villain instead of the charismatic Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal.
Although Maxwell Lord was a challenging foe for Wonder Woman, co-writer Geoff Johns and director Patty Jenkins originally wanted a more powerful -- but less well-known -- character to take the throne as the movie's main villain. "We had toyed around early on about using the Duke of Deception, but it felt like we had already done a god in the first one with the God of War. And we didn't want to be repetitive with another god," said Johns in the Wonder Woman 1984 "Making Of" featurette.
The illusion-casting Duke of Deception is a recurring enemy in the Wonder Woman comics, challenging her and the other Amazons by teaming up with Diana's regular villain Circe. It's not known how the evil trickster god would tie into Wonder Woman 1984's plot, but Duke of Deception is also frequently hired by Wonder Woman's half-brother and antagonist Ares (played by David Thewlis in the first film).
Maxwell Lord shares one big similarity with Duke of Deception: his ability to warp reality to trick his opponents. Pascal's villain got his power, which focuses on wish granting and psychic abilities, from the Dreamstone. Duke of Deception, similar to the Greek god Dolos, is more a god of trickery. Once they settled on Maxwell Lord taking the spot, Jenkins immediately had Pascal in mind.
Directed and co-written by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman 1984 stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal and Natasha Rothwell. The film is out now digitally and arrived on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD March 30.
Source: Heroic Hollywood